IDOLS 


IDOLS  OF  EDUCATION 

SELECTED  AND  ANNOTATED 
By  CHARLES   MILLS   GAYLEY 


Ephraim  is  joined  to  idols.     Hos.  iv,  17 


NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
MCMX 


ALL  EIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF  TRANSLATION 
INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES,  INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 

COPYRIGHT,    ipio,  BY  DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE   ft   COMPANY 
PUBLISHED,   FEBRUARY,   IQIO 


UN1VEPSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA  COLLEGE  L1BRABT 


55114 


TO 

JAMES     BURRILL     ANGELL 

STATESMAN     AND     ADMINISTRATOR 

SCHOLAR,     ORATOR    AND     TEACHER 

COUNSELLOR 

FRIEND 

MOULDER     OF    UNIVERSITIES 
MAKER    OF    MEN 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.     A  WORLD  OF  OPPORTUNITY          .  3 

II.     AN  INDIFFERENT  GENERATION     .  11 

III.  THE  BANDAR-LOG          ...  17 

IV.  THE  MAN  OF  ARGOS    ...  27 

V.     THE   STAGGERS  AND  THE   CARE- 
LESS LAPSE        ....  33 

VI.     THE  ADVANCE  OF  DEMOCRACY     .  49 

VII.    IDOLS  OF  THE  TRIBE    ...  57 

VIII.     IDOLS    OF   THE   ACADEMIC    MAR- 
KET-PLACE         ....  69 

IX.     SOME     WAGES     OF     INEVITABLE 
GRACE,    CAPRICE,    AND    QUICK 

RETURNS 81 

X.    THE  COLLAPSE  OF  CULTURE        .  91 

XI.     SOME  WAGES  OF  PEDANTRY  105 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

XII.     SOME  WAGES  OF  PLAY          .        .  113 

XIII.  THE  COLLAPSE  OP  DISCIPLINE     .  121 

XIV.  IDOLS  OF  THE  ACADEMIC  CAVE    .  131 
XV.     SOME  "IDOLS"  OF  MY  OWN        .  143 

XVI.     SOME    MORE    "IDOLS"    OF    MY 

OWN 157 

XVII.     OBITER  DICTA  175 


A  WORLD  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


IDOLS 

A  WORLD  OF  OPPORTUNITY 

THE  world  was  never  better  worth 
preparing  for.  The  panorama  un- 
rolled before  the  mind  was  never  more 
gorgeous: — a  new  renaissance  revealing 
reaches  unimagined;  prophesying  splen- 
dour unimaginable;  unveiling  mysteries 
of  time  and  space  and  natural  law  and 
human  potency. 

Archaeology  uncovers  with  a  spade  the 
world  of  Ariadne  and  of  Minos,  of  Aga- 
memnon and  of  Priam.  Where  Jason 
launched  the  Argo,  paintings  are  un- 
earthed that  antedate  Apelles.  Mum- 
mied crocodiles  disgorge  their  papyri: 
[3] 


IDOLS 

and  we  read  the  administrative  record  of 
the  Ptolemies.  Bacchylides  breaks  the 
silence  of  centuries;  himself  Menander 
mounts  the  stage,  and  in  no  borrowed 
Roman  sock;  and  Aristotle  reappears  to 
shed  fresh  light  upon  the  constitution  of 
the  Athenians. 

History  availing  herself  of  cognate  sci- 
ences deciphers  documents  and  conditions 
anew;  and  the  vision  of  the  past  is  rein- 
terpreted in  terms  of  social  and  economic 
actuality.  Emigrations  and  conquests 
become  a  modern  tale  of  commerce  and 
industrial  stress.  Csesar  and  Agrippina, 
Cromwell  and  Marie  Antoinette,  are  all 
to  read  again;  and  the  Bard  of  Venusia 
acquires  a  new  and  startling  modernity 
as  the  literary  advance  agent  of  a  pluto- 
cratic wine  firm.  As  in  a  "glass  pros- 
pective*' literature  is  viewed;  and  kalei- 
doscopic transformations  of  gest  and  bal- 

[4] 


IDOLS 

lad,  epic  and  drama,  cross-sections  of  the 
crypt  of  fiction,  dazzle  the  eye  of  critic  and 
philologist  and  poet. 

With  golden  keys  of  psychology,  his- 
tory and  philology,  the  anthropologist 
unlocks  the  mind  of  primitive  man.  The 
student  of  the  holier  things  invades  the 
Temple  itself;  and  from  day  to  day  the 
sacramental  doors  swing  back  on  age- 
long galleries  of  worship. 

Taking  fresh  heart  of  ethics,  econo- 
mics wears  a  new  and  most  seductive 
smile.  No  longer  the  minimizing  of 
material  cost,  but  the  maximizing  of 
vital  value,  she  regards.  She  seeks  the 
psychic  income,  the  margin  of  leisure  for 
the  soul,  the  margin  of  health  for  the 
body:  the  greatest  of  national  assets  — 
the  true  wealth  of  nations.  To  the  mod- 
ern problems  of  social  and  political  theory 
and  of  jurisprudence,  of  municipal  and 
[5] 


IDOLS 

national  and  colonial  administration,  a 
similar  fascination  of  beneficent  discov- 
ery attracts;  and  to  that  development  of 
international  politics  which  aims  at  con- 
stitutional law  rather  than  the  substantive 
private  law  of  nations. 

Geology  multiplies  her  aeons,  and  as- 
tronomy her  glittering  fields.  "  Hills  peep 
o'er  hills,  and  Alps  on  Alps"  of  new  dis- 
covered cause  "arise."  "The  idea  of 
the  electron  has  broken  the  frame  work 
of  the  old  physics  to  pieces,  has  revived 
ancient  atomistic  hypotheses,  and  made 
of  them  principles,"  and  radio-activity 
"has  opened  to  the  explorer  a  New  Amer- 
ica full  of  wealth  yet  unknown."  The 
science  of  the  law  of  celestial  movements 
has  given  birth  to  the  science  of  the  sub- 
stance of  celestial  bodies ;  and,  with  astro- 
physics, we  study  more  narrowly  than 
ever  our  one  star,  and  its  outcasts,  the 

[6] 


IDOLS 

planets.  We  wonderingly  contemplate 
the  transport  of  matter  from  star  to 
star  —  and  from  planet  to  planet,  maybe, 
of  life. 

Geology  has  given  birth  to  physi- 
ography. We  pass  from  inorganic  to 
organic,  and  probe  the  interaction  of 
physical  environment  and  animate  nature. 
In  evolutionary  science  they  are  saying 
that  new  species  leap  into  being  at  a 
wave  of  the  wand  of  mutation;  and  the 
war  between  Mendelism  and  Darwinism 
wages.  The  knighthood  of  the  Quest  of 
Life  enrolls  in  the  order  of  psychic 
mystery  or  the  order  of  mechanism, 
and  presses  on.  Though  neither  win 
to  the  Grail,  each  wins  nearer  to  its 
law.  By  the  delicate  ministrations  of 
surgery,  life  is  prolonged.  Immunization 
lifts  ever  higher  her  red  cross. 

Engineering      advances,       agriculture 

[7] 


IDOLS 

advances,  commerce  expands.  We  com- 
pass the  earth,  we  swim  the  seas,  we 
ride  the  air.  Our  voices  pierce  the  inter- 
vals of  space,  and  our  thoughts  the 
unplumbed  waves  of  ether.  And  from 
her  watch-tower  scrutinizing  all  — 
science,  pure  and  applied,  history  and 
art,  mechanism  and  spirit,  teleology, 
evolution  —  the  science  of  sciences, 
Divine  Philosophy  rounds  out  her  calm 
survey.  Never  more  tempting,  more 
vital,  the  problem  than  that  which  she 
faces  now;  the  problem  of  the  funda- 
mental character  of  personality.  "In 
the  light  of  all  this  evolution  or  mutation, 
what  is  God?"  she  asks.  "Is  he,  too, 
but  a  cosmic  process  in  which  we  assist; 
or  an  eternal  standard  of  perfection 
against  which  we  measure  ourselves  and 
in  terms  of  which  we  strive?" 

[8] 


AN   INDIFFERENT   GENERATION 


AN  INDIFFERENT   GENERATION 

THE  world  of  learning  was  never 
better  worth  preparing  for.  Why  is 
it,  then,  that  from  every  university  in 
the  land,  and  from  every  serious  journal, 
there  goes  up  the  cry,  "Our  young 
people  were  never  more  indifferent". 
How  many  nights  a  week  does  the 
student  spend  in  pursuits  non-academic; 
how  great  a  proportion  of  his  days? 
What  with  so-called  "college  activities," 
by  which  he  must  prove  his  allegiance 
to  the  University,  and  social  functions  by 
which  he  must  recreate  his  jaded  soul, 
no  margin  is  left  for  the  one  and  only 
college  activity  —  which  is  study.  Class 
meetings,  business  meetings,  committee 


IDOLS 

meetings,  editorial  meetings,  football  ral- 
lies, baseball  rallies,  pyjama  rallies,  vica- 
rious athletics  on  the  bleachers,  garrulous 
athletics  in  dining  room  and  parlour  and 
on  the  porch,  rehearsals  of  the  glee  club, 
rehearsals  of  the  mandolin  club  and  of 
the  banjo,  rehearsals  for  dramatics  (a 
word  to  stand  the  hair  on  end),  college 
dances  and  class  banquets,  fraternity 
dances  and  suppers,  preparations  for  the 
dances  and  banquets,  more  committees 
for  the  preparations;  a  running  up  and 
down  the  campus  for  ephemeral  items 
for  ephemeral  articles  in  ephemeral 
papers,  a  soliciting  of  advertisements, 
a  running  up  and  down  for  subscrip- 
tions to  the  dances  and  the  dinners,  and 
the  papers  and  the  clubs;  a  running  up 
and  down  in  college  politics,  making 
tickets,  pulling  wires,  adjusting  combina- 
tions, canvassing  for  votes  —  canvas- 

[12] 


IDOLS 

sing  the  girls  for  votes,  spending  hours 
at  sorority  houses  for  votes  —  spending 
hours  at  sorority  houses  for  sentiment; 
talking  rubbish  unceasingly,  thinking 
rubbish,  revamping  rubbish  —  rubbish 
about  high  jinks,  rubbish  about  low, 
rubbish  ahout  rallies,  rubbish  about 
pseudo-civic  honour,  rubbish  about 
girls ;  —  what  margin  of  leisure  is  left 
for  the  one  activity  of  the  college,  which 
is  study? 

In  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  than  which 
no  universities  have  turned  out  finer, 
cleaner,  more  manly,  more  highly  culti- 
vated, and  more  practically  trained 
scholars,  statesmen,  empire  builders,  or 
more  generous  enthusiasts  for  general 
athletics  and  clean  sport  —  in  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  the  purpose  is  study, 
and  the  honours  are  paid  to  the  scholar. 
There  are  no  undergraduate  newspapers, 
[13] 


IDOLS 

no  class  meetings,  no  college  politics,  no 
football  rallies,  no  business  managers, 
no  claques  for  organized  applause,  no 
yell  leaders,  no  dances,  no  social  func- 
tions of  the  mass.  Social  intercourse 
during  term  between  the  sexes  is  strictly 
forbidden;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  college 
loyalty  to  live  up  to  the  rule.  Of  non- 
academic  activities  there  are  but  two  — 
athletics  and  conversation.  They  are 
not  a  function  but  a  recreation;  nor  are 
they  limited  to  specialists  whose  reputa- 
tion is  professed.  Young  Oxonians,  in 
general,  lead  a  serene  and  undistracted, 
but  rich  and  wholesome  life.  They  cul- 
tivate athletics  because  each  is  an  active 
devotee  of  some  form  of  sport.  And 
conversation  —  in  junior  commons,  in 
the  informal  clubs,  in  study  or  in  tutor's 
room  —  it  is  an  education,  a  passion, 
an  art. 

[14] 


THE  BANDAR-LOG 


THE   BANDAR-LOG 

A  FOREIGNER,  attending,  in  an 
American  university,  an  assembly 
of  student  speakers,  will  be  justified  in  con- 
cluding that  the  university  exists  for 
nothing  but  so-called  "student  activi- 
ties." The  real  purpose  of  the  university 
will  not  be  mentioned,  for  usually  our 
undergraduates  live  two  lives — distinct; 
one  utterly  non-academic.  The  non- 
academic  is  for  them  the  real ;  the  schol- 
arly an  encroachment.  The  student  who 
regards  the  scholarly  as  paramount  is 
deficient  in  "allegiance  to  his  university." 
Athletics  meanwhile,  which  should 
play  a  necessary  part  in  the  physical, 
and  therefore  spiritual,  development  of 
[17] 


IDOLS 

all  students,  are  relegated  to  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  students.  The  rest  assist  —  on 
the  bleachers.  The  ninety  per  cent. 
are  killing  two  birds  with  one  stone. 
They  are  taking  second-hand  exercise; 
and,  by  their  grotesque  and  infantile 
applause,  they  are  displaying  what  they 
call  their  "loyalty." 

Those  nodes,  coenaeque  deum  of  history 
and  poetry  and  philosophical  discourse, 
to  the  memory  of  which  the  older  gene- 
ration reverts  with  rapture,  have  faded 
in  this  light  of  common  day.  In  the  hurry 
of  mundane  pursuit  the  student  rarely 
halts  to  read,  rarely  to  consider;  rarely  to 
discuss  the  concerns  of  the  larger  life. 

President  Schurman  has  recently  said 
that  there  has  been  no  decline  of  scholar- 
ship hi  the  people's  universities;  but 
only  in  the  older  institutions  of  the  East, 
to  which  rich  parents  send  their  sons 
[18] 


IDOLS 

with  the  view  to  the  advantages  of  social 
position;  and  that  in  the  people's  uni- 
versities the  social  standing  of  students 
has  never  cut  so  much  figure  as  scholar- 
ship. The  assurance  is  comfortable;  but 
it  obscures  the  issue.  If  by  "social 
standing"  the  President  of  Cornell  means 
position  in  the  coteries  of  wealth,  fashion, 
conviviality,  it  may  be  that  "  social  stand- 
ing" bulks  larger  in  the  older  university 
than  in  the  university  of  the  state.  But 
the  fact  is,  that  in  student  esteem,  East 
and  West,  social  standing  means  no  such 
thing:  it  means  the  position  achieved 
by  prominence  in  non-academic  or 
"campus"  activities.  And  in  student 
esteem  such  prominence  cuts  a  far  more 
important  figure  than  that  of  either 
wealth  or  scholarship.  Such  prominence 
has  been  gaining  ground  for  fifteen  years. 
So  long  as  the  social  pressure  of  the 
[19] 


IDOLS 

university  is  toward  mundane  pursuits, 
it  will  be  vain  to  expect  the  student  to 
achieve  distinction  in  that  for  which  the 
university  stands. 

This  false  standard  of  prominence, 
with  its  feigned  allegiance  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  University,  has  produced 
that  class  of  student  which,  adapting 
from  the  Jungle  Book,  I  call  the 
"Bandar-log." 

"Mowgli  had  never  seen  an  Indian 
city  before,  and  though  this  was  almost 
a  heap  of  ruins  it  seemed  very  wonderful 
and  splendid.  Some  king  had  built  it 

long  ago  on  a  little  hill 

The  Bandar-logs  called  the  place  their 
city,  and  pretended  to  despise  the  jungle 
people  because  they  lived  in  the  forest. 
And  yet  they  never  knew  what  the  build- 
ings were  made  for  nor  how  to  use  them. 
They  would  sit  in  circles  in  the  hall  of 
[20] 


IDOLS 

Ing's  council-chamber  and  scratch 
for  flefes  and  pretend  to  be  men;  or  they 
would  run  in  and  out  of  the  roofless 
houses  and  collect  pieces  of  plaster  and 
old  bricks  in  the  corner  and  forget  where 
they  had  hidden  them,  and  fight  and  cry 
in  scuffling  crowds,  and  then  break  off 
to  play  up  and  down  the  terraces  of  the 
King's  garden,  where  they  would  shake 
the  rose  trees  and  the  oranges  in  sport 
to  see  the  fruit  and  flowers  fall.  They 
explored  all  the  passages  and  dark  tun- 
nels in  the  palace,  and  the  hundreds  of 
little  dark  rooms,  but  they  never  remem- 
bered what  they  had  seen  and  what  they 
had  not,  and  sa  drifted  about  in  ones 
and  twos  or  crowds,  telling  one  another 
that  they  were  doing  as  men  did  — 
or  shouting  *  there  are  none  in  the  jungle 
so  wise  and  good  and  clever  and  strong 
and  gentle  as  the  Bandar-log.'  Then 
[21] 


IDOLS 

they  would  tire  and  seek  the  treetop, 
hoping  the  jungle  people  would  notice 
them  .  .  .  and  then  they  joined  hands 
and  danced  about  and  sang  their  fool- 
ish songs.  'They  have  no  law,'  said 
Mowgli  to  himself,  'no  hunting  call  and 
no  leaders'  .  .  .  And  he  could  not 
help  laughing  when  they  cried,  'we  are 
great,  we  are  free,  we  are  wonderful  .  .  . 
we  all  say  so,  and  so  it  must  be  true  .  .  . 
you  shall  carry  our  words  back  to  the 
jungle  people  that  they  may  notice  us  in 
future.'" 

The  Bandar-log  is  with  us.  Busy  to 
no  purpose,  imitative,  aimless;  boast- 
ful but  unreliant;  inquisitive  but  quickly 
losing  his  interest;  fitful,  inconsequential, 
platitudinous,  forgetful;  noisy,  sudden, 
ineffectual. — The  Bandar-log  must  go. 

Because  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  American 
university  to  prove  the  things  that  are 


IDOLS 

new,  to  hold  fast  that  which  is  good;  to 
face  abuses  boldly  and  to  reform  them; 
because  I  am  the  son  of  an  American 
university,  and  have  grown  in  her  teach- 
ing, and  in  my  observation  of  many 
universities  and  many  schools,  to  regard 
the  evil  as  transitory  and  abuses  as 
remediable,  I  have  ventured,  in  this  essay 
to  set  down  simply,  and  with  a  frankness 
that  I  trust  may  not  be  misconstrued, 
some  of  the  vagaries  of  our  educational 
system  at  the  present  time,  and  some  of 
the  reasons  for  their  existence.  For  I 
am  sure  that  in  the  recognition  of  the 
cause  is  to  be  found  the  means  of  cure. 


[23] 


THE  MAN  OF  ARGOS 


THE  MAN  OF  ARGOS 

A  NOTHER  class  also  of  students 
-*"*•  makes,  though  unconsciously,  for 
the  wane  of  general  scholarship  —  the 
class  of  the  prematurely  vocational.  It  is 
not  futile,  like  that  of  the  Bandar-log, 
but  earnest,  and  with  a  definite  end  in 
view.  Still,  unwisely  guided  to  imma- 
ture choice  and  hasty  study  of  a  pro- 
fession, it  not  only  misses  the  liberal 
equipment  necessary  for  the  ultimate 
mastery  of  life,  but  indirectly  diverts 
the  general  scope  of  education  from  its 
true  ideals. 

The  spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  says  a 
modern  historian  of  poetry,  is  portrayed 
in   a   picture   by    Moretto.     It    is   of   a 
[27] 


IDOLS 

young  Venetian  noble.  'The  face  is 
that  of  one  in  the  full  prime  of  life 
and  of  great  physical  strength;  very 
handsome,  heavy  and  yet  tremulously 
sensitive,  the  large  eyes  gazing  at  some 
thing  unseen,  and  seeming  to  dream 
of  vastness.  On  his  bonnet  is  a  golden 
plaque  with  three  words  of  Greek 
inscribed  on  it  —  lov  \Cav  iro6<a  -  "Oh, 
but  I  am  consumed  with  excess  of 
desire." 

If  this  be  the  motto  of  the  Renais- 
sance, what  shall  we  say  is  the  motto  of 
to-day?  Not  lov  \tav  TTO^W;  no  creed  of 
vague  insatiable  yearning,  but  rather 
the  trdina  avrl/ca  irodto  —  the  lust  for 
immediate  and  universal  possession:  as 
who  should  cry, 

"I  want  no  little  here  below, 
I  want  it  all,  and  quick." 

In   one  of  his  odes,   Pindar,   lauding 
[28] 


IDOLS 

the  older  times  when  the  Muse  had  not 
yet  learned  to  work  for  hire,  breaks  off 
"but  now  she  biddeth  us  observe  the 
saying  of  the  Man  of  Argos,  *  Money 

maketh    man "    —  xprfpara,      xpripar     avrip. 

Tf  not  money,  then  sudden  success  — 
that  is  the  criterion  of  the  Man  of  Argos, 
to-day. 

The  Bandar-log  and  the  Argive  retard 
the  advance  of  scholarship  in  the  uni- 
versity; and  not  the  university  alone  is 
responsible  for  their  presence,  but  the 
elementary  school  as  well. 


[29] 


THE    STAGGERS  AND    THE    CARELESS 
LAPSE 


THE  STAGGERS  AND  THE  CARELESS 
LAPSE 

OF  THE  effectiveness  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  several  states,  the 
universities  of  each  state  respectively 
may  judge.  From  Harvard,  Yale  and 
Princeton  to  California  and  Stanford  the 
judgment  is  a  groan.  Is  the  fault  with 
the  schools  ?  or  is  the  standard  of  require- 
ment too  high?  or  is  the  basis  of  con- 
clusion in  each  case  too  narrow?  The 
reply  may  best  be  given  by  one  who 
examines  pupils  of  all  states. 

"Probably     nowhere      else,"     writes 
Colonel    Lamed    of    the    United  States 
Military  Academy,  in  the  North  Ameri- 
can Review  of  September,  1908,  "prob- 
[33] 


IDOLS 

ably  nowhere  else  can  the  general 
effectiveness  of  our  public  schools  be 
so  well  gauged  as  at  the  academies 
at  West  Point  and  Annapolis.  Their 
candidates  are  drawn  from  every  Con- 
gressional District  of  every  state  and 
territory  of  the  Union,  and  largely  from 
the  class  of  our  citizens  who  send  their 
children  to  the  primary  and  high  schools 
supported  by  the  states."  The  subjects 
of  examination  are  elementary:  algebra, 
geometry,  grammar,  composition  and 
literature,  geography,  and  history. 
"The  examinations  are  written,  and 
abundant  time  is  given  for  their  com- 
pletion, even  by  those  of  inferior  capacity 
and  preparation.  The  papers  are 
marked  on  a  scale  of  one  hundred  as  a 
maximum;  sixty-six  being  the  normal 
minimum  standard  of  proficiency." 
Generally  speaking,  deficiency  in  one 
[34] 


IDOLS 

subject  constitutes  deficiency  in  the  whole 
examination.  Out  of  314  candidates 
who  attempted  the  entrance  papers  in 
March,  1908,  265  failed:  56  hi  one  sub- 
ject, 209  hi  two  or  more  subjects.  Of 
the  failures  there  were  44  per  cent,  hi 
algebra;  67  per  cent,  hi  geometry;  37 
per  cent,  hi  grammar;  40  per  cent,  hi 
composition  and  literature.  "Out  of  the 
314  examined  mentally  it  appears  that 
295,  or  90  per  cent.,  had  been  educated  in 
public  schools,  and  that  the  average  num- 
ber of  years  of  attendance  in  these  schools 
was  nine  years,  eleven  months.  Separa- 
ting this  into  primary  and  secondary 
attendance,  we  find  that  the  average  at- 
tendance hi  High  Schools  was  three  years, 
three  months ;  and  in  Grammar  Schools, 
six  years,  eight  months.  103  candidates 
had  private  schooling  wholly  or  hi  part, 
135  had  college  education  of  one  year  or 
[35] 


IDOLS 

more;  189  studied  the  classics.  Of  the  135 
who  had  gone  so  far  as  a  college  education 
of  one  year  or  more,  82  failed  to  enter. 

"Altogether,"  comments  the  writer, 
"it  is  a  sorry  showing,  from  what- 
ever standpoint  it  is  viewed.  .  .  . 
Many  of  these  young  men  secured 
their  nominations  through  competitive 
examinations;  and  few,  if  any,  could 
have  been  taken  haphazard,  with  no 
regard  to  qualification  and  antecedents; 
while  all  could  have  been  employed 
some  nine  months  in  private  preparation. 
That  314  youths,  nearly  all  trained  in 
our  costly  public  schools,  with  an  average 
of  almost  ten  years'  attendance  (supple- 
mented in  the  case  of  one-third  of  their 
number  by  private  schooling,  and,  in 
the  case  of  43  per  cent.,  by  college  train- 
ing) should  show  84  per  cent,  of  failure 
and  the  various  deficiencies  analyzed 
[36] 


IDOLS 

above,  is  surely  a  state  of  affairs  that 
should  make  the  judicious  grieve  and 
our  educators  sit  up  and  take  notice. 
"If,"  continues  the  compiler  of  this 
unanswerable  arraignment,  "if  educa- 
tion is  concerned  with  mental  develop- 
ment alone,  it  is  fair  to  ask:  If  16,596,- 
503  boys  and  girls,  taught  in  our  public 
schools  at  a  cost  of  $376,996,472,  aver- 
age no  better  in  intellectual  attainments 
than  is  evidenced  by  the  foregoing,  does 
the  result  justify  the  outlay  and  the  ten 
or  more  years'  apprenticeship  of  youth  it 
demands?" 

The  boy  enters  our  colleges  "  a  badly 
damaged  article."  One-sidedly  prepared,  or 
not  prepared  at  all,  he  goes  through  college 
accumulating  courses,  but  not  education; 
desperately  selecting  studies  least  foreign 
to  his  slender  capability  for  assimilation, 
[37] 


IDOLS 

or  most  easy  to  slur,  or  most  likely  to  turn 
to  superficial  ends.  He  is  by  no  means 
always  lazy,  nor  oblivious  that  now  is 
the  chance  of  his  life;  but  he  has  no  core 
of  knowledge  to  which  the  facts  he  fum- 
bles may  cling,  no  keen-edged  lingu- 
istic or  scientific  tools  with  which  to  cut 
to  the  heart  of  the  matter;  no  memory 
trained  and  enriched,  no  taste,  no  imagi- 
nation, no  judgment  balanced  by  frequent 
trial,  no  habits  of  remorseless  application. 
He  has  bluff  but  not  confidence;  he  has 
promise,  but  not  power.  The  subjects 
of  his  study  have  not  been  correlated. 
The  goal  has  been  neither  discipline  nor 
intrinsic  worth.  He  has  probably  never 
studied  one  thing  thoroughly.  He  has 
not  been  guided ;  he  has  not  been  taught ; 
he  has  not  conquered  work.  He  has 
been  distracted;  he  has  been  amused. 
In  college  he  is  thrown  with  comrades 
[38] 


IDOLS 

of  like  equipment.  None  probably  has 
had  all  the  fundamentals  requisite  to 
any  one  study.  A  heterogenous  con- 
course, fortuitous,  divergent,  humane. 
To  the  individuals  of  such  a  class,  no 
teacher  could  impart  drill  or  rationally 
progressive  information:  Not  Orbilius, 
not  Erasmus.  In  the  humanities,  espe- 
cially, it  is  impossible  to  drive  a  class 
abreast.  And  if  the  tutor  tries  tandem, 
what  with  one-third  springhalt  of  French, 
another  hamstrung  of  German,  another 
spavined  of  Latin,  the  ninety-and-nine 
infested  with  bots  prejudicial  to  Greek, 
the  course  is  doomed  —  cast 

"  Into  the  staggers  and  the  careless  lapse 
Of  youth  and  ignorance." 

We    turn    out    from    our    American 
departments   of   the   liberal   arts,   many 
clean  and  manly  men,  noble  and  earn- 
est   women.     But    how    many    even    of 
[39] 


IDOLS 

these  know  the  rudiments  of  one  sub- 
ject thoroughly,  can  think  clearly,  reason 
accurately,  express  a  thought  lucidly, 
effectively,  correctly?  How  many  can 
spell,  how  many  write  a  letter  not  illit- 
erate, how  many  use  a  diction  simple, 
pure  and  idiomatic,  clearly  enounced, 
justly  pronounced?  How  many  know 
the  difference  between  Sennacherib  and 
a  floating  rib,  the  Maid  of  Orleans  and 
the  Maid  of  Athens,  the  Witch  of  Endor 
and  the  Widow  of  Nain,  Dionysius  and 
Dionysus,  the  Jewels  of  Cornelia  and 
the  diamond  necklace,  the  Lion  of 
Judah  and  the  Lion  of  the  North? 
Or,  if  some  have  some  vague  impression 
of  some  of  these  things,  for  how  many 
do  they  possess  an  historical  or  literary 
flavour?  If  a  speaker  refer  to  Apollyon 
or  the  Houyhnhms,  to  the  Delectable 
Mountains,  or  Mount  Hymettus,  or  the 
[40] 


IDOLS 

Horn  of  Roncesvalles ;  if  he  quote  a 
line  of  Horace,  a  French  bon  mot  or  a 
German  commonplace;  if  he  refer  to 
the  Seven  against  Thebes,  the  Electra, 
the  Bucolics,  the  Telemaque,  the  Sor- 
rows of  Werther,  to  Giotto's  O  or  Botti- 
celli's Spring,  to  Gargantua  or  Pompilia, 
how  many  eyes  light  with  recognition  ?  I 
do  not  mean  in  an  assembly  of  technical 
or  professional  students,  but  of  "  liberal " 
students.  And  if  some  students  of  litera- 
ture and  history  have  definite  acquaint- 
ance with  some  of  these  things,  have 
they  also  definite  acquaintance  with  the 
fundamentals  of  philosophy,  mathe- 
matics and  science,  no  less  significant  ? 
With  what  real  command  of  any  foreign 
language  do  our  students  go  forth?  It 
is  well  for  us  that  the  peoples  of  Europe 
are  the  most  courteous  of  men.  Long 
ago  they  learned  from  Aristotle  that  it 
[41] 


IDOLS 

was  inartistic  to  laugh  at  painful  impo- 
tence or  deformity. 

If  these  imperfections  hold  true  of 
our  graduates  of  literary  departments, 
they  hold,  so  far  as  elementary  culture 
is  concerned,  even  more  frequently  true 
of  our  vocational  students.  But  those 
who  pursue  the  practical  arts  and  the 
sciences  have  no  less  occasion  to  speak, 
to  write,  to  communicate,  expound,  con- 
vince, persuade  than  the  humanists: 
they  too  are  working  for  and  with  men. 
To  the  vocational  student  the  studies 
that  not  only  instruct  but  educate,  that 
make  not  only  for  knowledge  but  for 
power,  for  efficiency  characterized  by 
judgment  and  taste  —  to  the  vocational 
student  the  humanities  are  not,  by  neces- 
sity or  immutable  decree,  alien. 

Illiteracy  is  not  a  hall-mark  exclu- 
sively reserved  to  the  student  body. 
[42] 


IDOLS 

Our  Ph.  D.'s  are  lamentably  prone  to 
error  in  the  use  of  their  own  tongue. 
Of  the  later  crop  of  instructors  in  universi- 
ties, some  say  "he  don't,"  "hospi'table," 
"luckrative,"  "exqui'site,"  "mineralogy" 
—confessing that  "they  hadn't  ought  to"; 
others  never  fail,  they  "fall  down";  they 
never  win,  they  "win  out";  they  are  never 
at  a  loss,  though  they  are  frequently  "up 
against  it."  When  they  lecture  in  plain 
clothes,  the  outcome  is  a  discourse; 
when  in  a  dinner  jacket,  an  ad'dress. 
Recently,  a  specialist,  already  teaching 
in  an  Eastern  college,  was  highly  recom- 
mended for  an  instructorship  in  a 
Western  university  by  the  authorities 
of  the  Eastern  university  where  he  had 
published  an  ostensibly  learned  thesis 
and  secured  his  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy.  In  writing  he  "refered" 
to  a  previous  letter,  and  in  conversation 
[43] 


IDOLS 

suggested  that  we  "leave  things  go  as 
they  are. "  We  did.  To  rehearse  such 
amenities  would  be  invidious,  were  they 
not  of  every-day  occurrence,  and  the 
offenders  dulled  by  custom  and  con- 
genial apathy. 

Our  graduates  are  characterized  by 
lack  of  information,  lack  of  grasp,  lack 
of  culture.  This  is  no  prejudiced  account 
of  the  case.  It  is  attested  by  the  ver- 
dict of  our  leaders  at  the  bar,  on  the 
bench,  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the  hospital, 
and  by  our  captains  of  industry.  Also  by 
educated  foreigners.  Our  Rhodes  schol- 
ars should  certainly  represent  the  flower 
of  our  scholarship.  But  even  kindly 
critics  in  Oxford,  while  admiring  the 
sociability,  good  sense,  good  humour, 
broad  outlook  of  the  American  student, 
will  tell  you:  "The  American  student 
is,  with  few  exceptions,  deficient  in  his 
[44] 


IDOLS 

own  language,  spoken  or  written;  and 
has  but  the  smattering  of  any  other. 
He  is  more  often  superficial  than  ours, 
and  is  more  easily  satisfied.  He  does 
not  seem  to  understand  what  it  is  inde- 
pendently to  master  a  subject,  to  grasp 
it  in  all  its  ramifications,  and  retain  it 
hi  his  memory  as  a  whole."  This  criti- 
cism, be  it  noted,  applies  more  particu- 
larly to  our  students  of  the  humanities. 
In  the  pursuit  of  natural  science  and  in 
the  special  discipline  of  the  law  our 
Rhodes  scholars  have  made  a  better 
showing.  But  in  general,  their  cultural, 
especially  linguistic,  limitations,  are  a 
raising  of  the  eyebrow  for  don  and 
student  of  English  training. 


[45] 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  DEMOCRACY 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  DEMOCRACY 


Bandar-log  and  the  Man  of 
•••  Argos  are  the  product  of  condi- 
tions: the  advance  of  democracy  and 
the  bewilderment  of  education.  Since 
the  latter  condition  reflects  demands 
presented  by  the  former,  it  is  in  contem- 
porary makeshifts  of  education  that  we 
shall  find  the  ultimate  cause  of  woe. 

The  demands  of  democracy  are  not 
a  matter  to  scold  about:  They  are  a 
condition  to  face.  Democracy  has  ar- 
rived. It  has  achieved  its  privileges, 
its  responsibilities  too.  It  has  arrived 
in  social  comfort  and  social  unrest;  in 
industrial  promise  and  industrial  per- 
plexity; in  commercial  expansion  and 
[49] 


IDOLS 

commercial  lure;  in  political  potency 
and  political  menace.  It  has  arrived  in 
education.  It  has  arrived  with  unlet- 
tered zeal  and  unfettered  authority; 
scornful  of  tradition,  oblivious  of  diffi- 
culties, impatient  of  delay.  It  has  ar- 
rived with  its  ideal:  The  greatest  hap- 
piness for  the  greatest  number.  It  regards 
learning  as  a  means,  not  also  an  end 
in  itself.  With  democracy  the  means 
is  the  practical;  the  end  is  the  profit- 
able, the  immediate,  for  the  greatest 
number. 

With  these  preconceptions  democracy 
has  arrived.  The  old  culture  cannot 
supply  the  school  with  teachers.  De- 
mocracy is  supplying  its  own  teach- 
ers. They  have  the  flavour  of  their 
kind:  only  too  commonly  they  regard 
education  as  a  means  and  means  alone, 
for  profit  and  profit  alone.  The  few 
[50] 


IDOLS 

who  think  otherwise,  how  can  they  stem 
the  tide?  In  the  elementary  schools  it 
is  impossible  to  discriminate  between 
the  crowd  and  the  individual;  between 
mediocrity  or  incapacity  on  one  hand, 
and  excellence  on  the  other.  The  pace 
is  determined  by  the  pupil  somewhat 
below  the  average.  Approved  by  teach- 
ers —  honest  and  zealous  to  be  sure, 
but  in  many  cases  none  the  less  unlet- 
tered— this  pupil  still  below  the  average 
invades  the  high  school.  In  its  turn, 
the  high  school  struggles  to  stem  the 
tide.  The  high  school  has  teachers  more 
critical  and  better  trained,  but  it,  too, 
must  regard  the  greatest  happiness  of 
the  greatest  number.  The  greatest  num- 
ber debouches  upon  the  university.  The 
son  or  daughter  of  every  taxpayer  has  an 
inalienable  right  to  a  university  educa- 
tion; hence  to  the  bachelor's  degree. 
[51] 


IDOLS 

Democracy  objects  to  flood  gates.     Its 
ideal  is  not  the  efficiency  of  the  fit. 

This  sudden  and  overwhelming  de- 
mand for  education,  in  itself  of  glori- 
ous promise,  is  attended  by  material 
penalties  still  other  than  those  which  we 
have  noted  in  passing:  the  insufficiency 
of  teachers'  salaries,  for  instance,  and 
the  resulting  feminization  of  our  schools. 
Of  the  latter,  suffice  it  here  to  say,  that 
it  partly  accounts  for  the  disrepute  into 
which  the  humanities  have  fallen,  for, 
entrusted  to  women,  the  languages,  lit- 
erature, and  history  have  come  to  be 
regarded  as  feminine  and  ineffectual 
studies;  and  for  the  cosseting  of  boys, 
and  the  consequent  undisciplined  char- 
acter of  the  rising  generation  of  men. 
In  our  universities,  the  tremendous  influx 
of  students,  the  confusion,  the  rush  and 
hurry  of  modern  life,  have  contributed 
[52] 


IDOLS 

to  the  effect,  finally,  that  we  have  lost, 
as  Professor  Birge  has  said,  "the  sweet 
serenity  of  books,  and  have  not  gained 
the  freedom  of  pure  research.  We  have 
lost  the  independence  born  of  detach- 
ment from  life,  and  have  not  gained  the 
poise  of  practical  efficiency.  We  have 
lost  the  sense  of  mastery  of  ourselves  and 
of  our  public,  and  in  all  things  we  have 
become  experimental.  In  brief,  we  have 
suffered  and  are  suffering  from  that 
distraction  of  spirit  which  always  accom- 
panies great  and  rapidly  acquired  gains; 
gains  too  large  to  be  quickly  mastered 
or  readily  put  to  full  and  easy  use." 


[53] 


IDOLS  OF  THE  TRIBE 


IDOLS   OF  THE   TRIBE 

ROGER  BACON,  long  ago,  and 
after  him,  Francis,  in  their  quest 
of  truth,  perceived  that  there  were  four 
grounds  of  human  error.  Of  these  the 
first  is  "the  false  appearances  that  are 
imposed  upon  us  by  the  general  nature 
of  the  mind"  of  man.  The  mind  is 
always  prone  to  accept  the  affirmative 
or  active  as  proof  rather  than  the  nega- 
tive; so  that  if  you  hit  the  mark  a  few 
times  you  forget  the  many  that  you 
missed  it.  You  worship  Neptune  for  the 
numerous  pictures  in  his  temple  of  those 
that  escaped  shipwreck,  but  you  omit 
to  ask,  "  Where  are  the  pictures  of  those 
that  were  drowned?"  And  because  you 
[57] 


IDOLS 

are  mentally  equipped  to  seek  uniformity, 
you  ascribe  to  "Nature  a  greater  equal- 
ity and  uniformity  than  is,  in  truth." 
In  this  refractory  mind  of  man  "the 
beams  of  things"  do  not  "reflect  accord- 
ing to  their  true  incidence";  hence  our 
fundamental  superstitions,  fallacies  which 
Francis  Bacon  calls  the  Idols,  or  delu- 
sions, of  the  Race,  or  Tribe. 

In  matters  of  education  the  dearest 
delusion  of  our  Tribe  to-day  is  that  the 
university  should  reflect  the  public.  This 
is  the  idol  of  the  Popular  Voice.  Once 
the  university  is  joined  to  this  idol,  it  is 
joined  to  all  the  idols  of  that  Pantheon. 
It  accepts  the  fallacy  that  our  sons  and 
daughters  are  equally  gifted  and  zealous, 
and  hence  that  each  must  profit  by  the 
higher  education.  This  is  the  idol  of 
Inevitable  Grace;  that  is,  of  grace  innate 
and  irresistible  by  which  every  youth  is 
[58] 


IDOLS 

predestinated  to  intellectual  life,  "with- 
out any  foresight  of  faith  or  good 
works,  or  perseverance  in  either  of  them, 
or  any  other  thing  in  the  creature,  as 
conditions  or  causes  moving  him  there- 
unto," or  anything  in  the  tutor.  No 
Calvinistic  favour  this,  by  which  some 
are  chosen  while  others  are  ordained  to 
ignorance  and  sloth;  but  a  favour  not 
contemplated  in  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession, by  which  all  are  elect  and  all, 
in  due  season,  effectually  called  to  learn- 
ing, and  quickened  and  renewed  by  the 
Spirit  of  Zeal,  and  so  enabled  to  answer 
this  call  and  embrace  the  Grace  offered 
and  conveyed  in  it.  The  university  is 
then  joined  to  the  idol  of  Numbers. 
And  of  these  worships  the  shibboleth  is 
"mediocrity":  for  to  raise  the  standard 
of  university  requirement  is  to  discrim- 
inate between  candidates,  and  to  doubt 
[59] 


IDOLS 

Inevitable  Grace;  while  to  decrease  the 
bloated  registration  is  a  sacrilege  which 
Numbers  will  avenge  with  curtailment 
of  prosperity.  And  the  ritual  march  is 
by  lock-step:  for  tests,  competition  and 
awards  are  alien  to  the  American  spirit 
thus  misrepresented  —  save  athletic  com- 
petition: that  is  a  divine  exception. 

The  university  is  next  joined  to  the 
idol  of  Quick  Returns.  It  accepts  the 
fallacy  of  utilitarian  purpose ;  and  hence, 
that  a  profession  must  be  chosen  pre- 
maturely and  immaturely  entered;  and 
hence  that  studies  are  not  for  discipline 
or  intrinsic  worth  but,  from  the  primary 
school  to  the  Ph.  D.,  for  purely  voca- 
tional value;  and  hence  that  every  incip- 
ient vocation  from  making  toy  boats 
and  paper  mats  to  making  tariffs  and 
balloons  must  find  its  place  in  every 
school  and  in  every  grade  for  every 
[60] 


IDOLS 

man-or-woman  child.  And  since  the 
man-or-woman  child  may  find  per- 
chance a  vocation  in  the  liberal  arts, 
the  child  must  bestride  both  horses, 
though  with  the  usual  aerial  result. 
And  our  students  —  they  worship  the 
idol  of  Incidental  Issues:  the  fallacy 
that  the  aim  of  the  university  is  deliber- 
ately to  make  character.  As  if  character 
were  worth  anything  without  mind,  and 
were  any  other,  as  President  Wilson  has 
wisely  said,  than  the  by-product  of  duty 
performed;  or  that  the  duty  of  the 
student  were  any  other  than  to  study. 
They  accept  the  fallacy  that  the  gauge 
of  studentship  is  popularity,  and  that 
popularity  during  academic  years  is  to 
be  won  by  hasty  achievement  and  the 
babbling  strenuous  life,  by  allegiance 
to  a  perverted  image  of  the  Alma  Mater, 
by  gregariousness,  by  playing  at  citi- 
[61] 


IDOLS 

zenship.  Of  this  popularity  the  out- 
ward and  visible  index  is  mundane 
prominence  and  the  lightly  proffered 
laurel  of  the  campus. 

I  said  that  the  dearest  delusion  of  the 
Tribe  was  that  the  university  should 
reflect  the  public.  But  this  delusion 
requires  also  that  our  universities  be 
continually  figuring  in  the  public  eye. 
So  far  as  such  activity  is  necessary  to 
the  building  up  of  schools,  and  to  the 
education  of  a  community  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  ideals  and  the  needs  of 
higher  education,  it  is  not  only  legitimate 
but  laudable.  But  when,  under  the 
name  of  university  extension  our  uni- 
versities undertake  the  higher  education 
of  the  periphery,  in  dilletantism  or 
methods  of  research,  they  run  the  risk 
of  university  attenuation  and  simulation. 
[62] 


IDOLS 

When,  not  dispassionately,  they  figure 
in  public  issues,  they  lay  themselves 
open  to  the  charge  of  partisanship. 
Time  was  when  academic  etiquette  for- 
bade the  university  professor  to  partici- 
pate in  political  contests.  Now  there 
are  who  dare  to  inject  the  university 
into  prejudiced  affairs;  even  into  crimi- 
nal cases  pending  in  the  courts.  They 
have  joined  themselves  to  the  idol  of 
Parade. 

To  this  same  false  policy  of  figuring  in 
the  public  eye  our  universities  bow  when 
they  sanction  amphitheatrical  spec- 
tacles, at  some  of  which  money  enough 
passes  hands  to  build  a  battleship. 
Football  is  a  most  desirable  recreation; 
and  a  moral  and  physical  discipline  of 
value  to  every  able-bodied  boy.  Nay 
more,  athletics,  physical  sport  and  emu- 
lation are  necessary  to  spiritual  health. 
[63] 


IDOLS 

Even  excess  in  them  is  better,  it  has 
often  been  said,  than  that  moral  evil 
should  abound.  But  is  the  alternative 
necessary?  Must  we  have  either  gladi- 
ators or  degenerates?  Need  athletics 
be  professionalized,  be  specialized? 
Do  specialized  athletics  benefit  the  morals 
of  the  ninety  and  nine  who  don't  play  ? 
Do  they  not  rather  spoil  sport,  detract 
from  time  and  tendency  to  exercise 
for  oneself?  Do  they  not  substitute 
hysteria  for  muscular  development  ? 
Football  is  a  noble  game;  but  it  is  with 
disgust  that  one  views  its  degeneration 
from  an  exhilarating  pastime  for  all  into 
a  profession  of  the  few,  a  source  of 
newspaper  notoriety,  a  cause  of  extrava- 
gance, orgiastic  self-abandonment,  and 
educational  shipwreck.  This  comes  of 
bowing  to  the  idol  of  Parade. 

The  university  should  not  adopt  the 
[64] 


IDOLS 

idols  of  the  community.  It  should  set 
the  ideals.  The  American  university 
is,  and  ever  must  be,  democratic.  It 
offers  education  to  all  who  can  profit 
by  it.  But  education  itself  is  aristo- 
cratic —  of  the  best  and  for  the  best. 
The  educated  are  those  who,  having 
striven,  are  the  chosen  few. 


[651] 


IDOLS    OF   THE    ACADEMIC    MARKET- 
PLACE 


IDOLS  OF  THE  ACADEMIC  MARKET- 
PLACE 

BEWILDERED  by  the  advance  of 
democracy,  educators  not  only 
have  accepted  fallacies  of  the  Tribe,  but 
have  attempted  to  justify  their  acceptance 
by  further  fallacies  of  their  own  -  -  based 
some  upon  a  juggling  with  words,  others 
upon  the  authority  of  some  Pundit  (living 
or  dead) ,  others  upon  individual  ignorance 
and  conceit.  These  are  respectively,  what 
Bacon  has  called  the  idols  of  the  Market- 
place, the  idols  of  the  Lecture-room  or 
Theatre,  the  idols  of  the  Cave. 

Idols  of  the  Market  -  place  are  fallacies 
proceeding  from    the   misconception   of 
words.     Since  we  educators  are  an  imi- 
[69] 


IDOLS 

tative  race,  many  of  these  misconceptions 
have  been  fostered  or  confirmed  by  the 
influence  of  some  great  name,  Rousseau 
or  Froebel,  or  Jacotot,  or  another;  that 
is  to  say,  by  authority.  Consequently, 
the  idols  of  the  Market-place  are  some- 
times also  idols  of  the  Theatre,  which 
is  to  say,  of  the  Lecture-room,  or  master 
by  whose  words  we  swear. 

"He  that  will  write  well  in  any  tongue 
must  follow  this  counsel  of  Aristotle,  to 
speak  as  the  common  people  speak,  but 
think  as  wise  men  think."  From  dis- 
regard of  such  counsel,  many  of  our  aca- 
demic fallacies  concerning  education  have 
arisen.  We  are  involved  in  questions 
and  differences  because  we  have  followed 
the  false  appearances  of  words,  instead 
of  setting  down  in  the  beginning  the  defi- 
nitions in  which  as  wise  men  we  may 
[70] 


IDOLS 

concur.  In  what  definition  of  educa- 
tion is  it  possible  that  wise  men  may  con- 
cur ?  All  will  agree  that  education  is  a 
process :  not  that  of  play,  nor  yet  of  work ; 
but  of  artistic  activity.  Play  meanders 
pleasantly  toward  an  external  end  of  no 
significance.  Work  drives  straight  for  an 
end  beyond  that  is  pleasant  because  of  its 
worth.  The  process  of  art  has  an  end  but 
not  beyond.  Its  end  is  in  itself;  and  it  is 
pleasurable  in  its  activity  because  its  true 
activity  is  a  result.  From  play  the  artistic 
process  differs  because  its  end  is  signifi- 
cant; from  work  it  differs  because  its  end 
is  in  its  activity,  and  because  its  activity 
possesses  the  pleasure  of  worth.  It  is 
like  religion:  a  process  continually  begun, 
and  in  its  incompleteness  complete.  Its 
ideal  is  incapable  of  temporal  fulfilment, 
but  still,  in  each  moment  of  development, 
it  is  spiritually  perfect. 
[71] 


IDOLS 

Education,  then,  is  an  art  —  the  art 
of  the  individual  realizing  himself  as 
a  member  of  a  society  whose  tabernacle 
is  here  but  whose  home  is  a  house  not 
built  with  hands.  Education  is  the  pro- 
cess of  knowing  the  best,  enjoying  the 
best,  producing  the  best  in  knowledge, 
conduct  and  the  arts.  Realization, 
expression  of  self,  physical,  intellectual, 
social,  emotional,  is  its  means  and  end. 
It  implies  faith  in  a  moral  order  and 
continuing  process,  of  which  it  is  itself 
an  integral  and  active  part. 

It  is  remarkable  with  what  persistency 
the  race  of  educators  has  indulged  ex- 
tremes. There  has  been  accorded  from 
time  to  time  an  apostle  of  the  golden 
mean.  But  his  disciples  have  ever  pro- 
ceeded to  the  ulterior  limit:  Among  the 
ancients  to  the  pole  of  self-culture  or 
to  the  pole  of  uncultured  service;  in  the 
[72] 


IDOLS 

dark  ages  to  the  ideal  of  the  cloister  or 
the  ideal  of  the  castle,  to  joyless  learning 
or  to  feudal,  and  feminine,  approval; 
in  the  middle  ages  to  the  bigotry  of  the 
obscurantist  or  the  allurement  of  the 
material;  in  the  Renaissance  to  contempt 
of  the  ancients  or  to  nee-paganism  —  to 
theological  quibbles  or  to  Castiglione,  to 
the  bonfire  of  vanities  or  the  carnal 
songs  of  Lorenzo;  in  the  Reformation,  to 
compulsory  discipline  or  the  apotheosis 
of  natural  freedom;  in  the  succeeding 
age  to  pedantry  or  deportment.  Still 
later  appear  Rousseau  and  the  phil- 
anthropists with  the  "return  to  nature," 
the  worship  of  individuality,  the  methods 
of  coddling  and  play;  and  then  Jacotot 
-  and  the  equal  fitness  of  all  for  higher 
education,  the  exaggeration  of  inductive 
methods,  the  chimerical  equivalence  of 
studies.  And  now  has  arrived  the  sub- 
[730 


IDOLS 

ordination  of  the  art  to  pure  profit,  or 
vaudeville,  or  seminars  for  sucklings. 
Always  the  fallacy  of  the  extreme !  —  If 
education  is  not  for  the  fit  it  must  be  for 
imbeciles;  if  not  for  culture,  for  Mam- 
mon; if  not  for  knowledge,  for  power;  if 
not  of  incunabula,  of  turbines  and  lim- 
ericks; if  not  by  the  cat-o'-nine-tails,  by 
gumdrops.  Why  the  mean  of  a  Plato  or  a 
Quintilian  could  not  obtain  —  the  sanity 
of  Melanchthon  or  Erasmus,  of  Sturm  or 
Comenius,  of  Milton  or  the  Port  Royal,  of 
Pestalozzi,  Friedrich  Wolf  or  Thomas 
Arnold, —  Heaven  only  knows,  which,  in 
its  unscrutable  purpose  has  permitted 
the  race  of  educators,  following  the 
devices  of  their  own  heart,  to  go  astray 
after  idols. 

To  know,  to   feel,   to  do  aright  and 
best,  each  and  all  in  all  and  each  of  the 
[74] 


IDOLS 

fields  of  human  activity,  that  is  the  art 
of  education. 

If  we  exaggerate  one  of  these  functions 
to  the  neglect  of  the  rest,  our  education 
is  no  longer  an  ideal  but  an  idol.  If, 
forgetting  that  education  is  an  art,  we  try 
to  make  of  it  a  pleasant  meandering,  we 
set  up  the  idol  of  Play.  If,  forgetting  that 
the  activity  of  Art  is  of  intrinsic  value 
and  delight,  we  glorify  the  empty  means 
and  merit  of  drudgery,  then  we  have 
erected  the  idol  of  Pedantry:  we  beat 
the  air  for  discipline,  shuffle  in  and  out 
of  corners  the  straw  of  arid  learning, 
and  choke  ourselves  with  the  dust  of  our 
own  sweeping.  If  we  fix  our  eyes  on 
the  cash,  we  bow  to  the  tribal  idol  of 
Quick  Returns.  If  we  forget  that,  as 
an  art,  there  is  for  education  a  progres- 
sive ideal  and  a  law  of  progress,  too, 
we  bow  to  the  idol  of  Caprice.  We 
[75] 


IDOLS 

fall  not  only  into  the  fallacies  already 
enumerated  but  into  the  fallacy  of  the 
equivalence  of  studies,  the  fallacy  of 
shifting,  the  fallacy  of  dissipation.  In 
Art  each  factor  is  in  relation  to  the  rest, 
and  all  to  the  whole:  we  proceed  fatu- 
ously upon  the  assumption  that  the 
part  is  the  whole;  and  therefore  each 
part  equal  to  each;  and  therefore  one 
study  as  good  as  any  other.  In  Art  the 
means,  which  is  the  end,  is  relative, 
progressive:  we  assume  comfortably 
that  studies  are  independent  of  each 
other,  that  we  can  take  any  in  any  order, 
pass  an  examination  and  have  done. 
In  Art  the  end,  which  is  the  means,  is 
absolute  and  self-referred  and  ideal:  we 
figure  that,  by  dissipating  our  energies, 
we  shall  happen  to  hit,  here  and  now, 
the  ideal.  Disregarding  the  progressive 
unity  of  education  we  bow  to  Caprice. 
[76] 


IDOLS 

The  idols  of  the  academic  market- 
place to-day  are  Caprice  and  Quick 
Returns  and  Play,  and,  in  unexpected 
corners,  Pedantry,  against  which  in  reac- 
tion these  three  were  set  up.  Of  these, 
Quick  Returns  was  borrowed  from  the 
tribe;  and  not  alone,  for  of  this  sub- 
vention are  other  tribal  gods  too  numer- 
ous to  rehearse  —  specially  Numbers 
and  Inevitable  Grace  and  Incidental 
Issues  and  Parade.  To  one  or  other  of 
these  false  worships  are  due  the  wane 
of  scholarship,  the  utilitarian  tendency, 
the  excrescence  of  non-academic  activ- 
ities, the  neglected  discipline  in  our 
education  at  the  present  time.  The 
blame  is  by  no  means  wholly  to  be  laid 
at  the  door  of  the  university.  It  attaches, 
also,  to  our  system  of  elementary  edu- 
cation. 

[77] 


SOME  WAGES  OF  INEVITABLE  GRACE, 
CAPRICE  AND  QUICK  RETURNS 


SOME  WAGES  OF  INEVITABLE  GRACE, 
CAPRICE  AND  QUICK  RETURNS 

TO  LAY  the  blame  upon  any  one 
university  innovation,  such  as  the 
system  of  admission  by  diploma,  or  the 
elective  system,  or  the  foundation  of  pro- 
fessional schools  and  of  departments  of 
graduate  research,  is  to  misjudge  the 
matter.  Each  of  these  may  have  con- 
tributed indirectly  to  the  present  imperfec- 
tion of  general  education;  but  each  in  its 
inception  was  a  response  to  the  demands 
not  only  of  democracy  but  of  advancing 
science.  The  fault  in  these  innovations 
is  not  inherent  in  the  theory  but  in  the 
abuse.  The  abuse  is  in  the  application. 
In  the  continued  extension,  for  instance, 
[81] 


IDOLS 

of  the  accrediting  system,  but  with  per- 
functory or  timid  supervision,  in  some 
states,  to  schools  that  have  exhausted 
the  advantages  of  its  fostering  care, 
and  have  reached  a  self-sufficing  and 
somewhat  restive  independence.  Or  in 
the  careless  supervision  of  schools  that 
have  not  yet  attained  to  the  stature 
of  wisdom  and  efficiency  requisite  for 
the  performance  of  their  duty  as  door- 
keepers of  the  higher  education.  In 
either  case  the  test,  the  emulation  and 
award,  which  are  essential  to  the  success 
of  the  system  are  slighted.  The  adminis- 
trators are  bowing  to  the  idol  of  Inevit- 
able Grace;  the  university  is  overrun 
with  pupils  accredited  by  sloth  or  fear 
or  favour;  and  the  accrediting  system, 
which  is  the  pride  of  Germany  and  many 
of  our  American  states,  is  discredited. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  in  revulsion,  there 
[82] 


IDOLS 

is  talk  of  admitting  on  diploma  hon- 
our pupils  only,  or  of  testing  all  in  some 
unannounced  subject,  or  of  examining 
every  one  in  every  subject  as  in  older 
universities  ? 

Nor  should  we  lay  the  blame  for  our 
present  insufficiencies  entirely  upon  the 
elective  system.  The  fault,  again,  is 
in  the  abuse.  In  itself  the  elective 
system  is  reasonable,  is  necessary,  is 
of  the  temper  and  the  time.  Only  reluc- 
tantly was  the  old  curriculum  modified, 
the  new  welcomed.  And  as  the  new 
developed,  offering  as  it  seemed  a  royal 
highway  through  broader  fields  of  cul- 
ture and  new  fields  of  practice,  to  higher 
classical  scholarship,  to  scientific  investi- 
gation, evoking  in  students  a  more  mature 
and  earnest  spirit,  gratulation  gained. 
Why  is  it  that,  of  latter  days,  the  highway 
has  been  crowded  with  students  scat- 
[83jj 


IDOLS 

tering  and  smattering  as  they  go,  and 
chattering  down  the  ditch  of  ease  that 
is  the  descent  of  Avernus  ?  or  that  the 
broad  driveway  itself,  like  that  in  Arkan- 
sas, has  dwindled  to  a  country  road, 
then  shrunk  to  a  by-path,  and  finally  to 
a  squirrel  track  and  run  up  a  tree  and 
into  a  hole  ?  Why  the  inconsequentiality 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  the 
blinding  bigotry  of  the  shut  mind  ? 

Because  in  its  application  the  system 
has  been  abused.  Partly  because,  in 
many  universities,  there  has  not  been  a 
proper  demarcation  between  the  funda- 
mental cultural  studies  and  methods  of  the 
first  two  years,  and  the  more  advanced 
studies,  with  their  methods  preparatory 
to  profession  or  research,  of  the  later 
years.  Because,  also,  students  have  not 
always  been  sufficiently  guided  in  their 
choice  by  the  arrangement  and  gradation 
[84] 


IDOLS 

of  cognate  electives  in  comprehensive 
groups.  Also,  because  the  system  has 
been  pushed  steadily  down  through  high 
school,  grammar  school,  primary  school, 
to  the  kindergarten,  where,  the  climate 
being  unduly  congenial,  it  has  gone 
completely  to  seed.  The  free  choice 
of  studies  is  not  for  children,  nor  for 
most  of  the  teachers  of  them.  From 
year  to  year  increasingly  the  schools 
have  provided  the  university  with  pupils 
crammed  with  sweets  of  Individual 
Caprice.  Spoiled  by  untimely  appli- 
ance of  the  elective  theory,  how  can 
pupils  profit  by  the  system  when  they 
reach  the  stage  where  first  they  should 
have  encountered  it?  Between  the 
unpreparedness  of  the  student  for  a 
liberal  education  and  the  sometimes  too 
highly  specialized  method  and  interests 
of  his  university  instructor,  the  liberal 
[85] 


IDOLS 

education  drops  out ;  or,  if  it  is  attempted 
by  the  instructor  of  the  fine,  old,  well- 
read  and  humanly  interested  type,  it 
is  attempted  in  vain. 

The  school  of  research  is  not  entirely 
to  blame  nor  the  professional  schools; 
each  has  its  place.  In  fact,  it  is  fre- 
quently in  such  schools  alone  —  and 
here  I  include  the  undergraduate  voca- 
tional colleges  of  engineering  and  the 
like  —  that  a  thorough  disciplinary  and 
informational  curriculum  is,  or  can  be, 
pursued.  And  it  is  to  be  remarked 
that  in  the  vocational  school  the  methods 
of  the  old  unyielding  curriculum  are 
largely  retained;  and  so  far  as  the 
achievement  of  their  material  end  is 
concerned,  retained  with  signal  success. 
But  how  great  the  loss,  how  slender  the 
success,  compared  with  what  might  have 
been  achieved  if  students  had  enjoyed 
[86] 


IDOLS 

in  the  lower  grades  the  thorough  liberal 
education  to  which  they  were  entitled, 
before  entering  upon  the  vocations  of 
life!  How  great  the  loss  for  lawyer, 
physician,  engineer,  captain  of  industry 
or  of  commerce,  student  of  theology  — 
how  great,  too,  for  the  specialized  Doc- 
tor of  Philosophy  who,  though  keen  in 
the  methods  of  some  science,  may  never 
have  savoured  a  verse  of  the  classics  or 
gleaned  the  elements  of  philosophy  or 
history  or  art!  Their  teachers  had 
seduced  them  to  the  worship  of  the  idol 
of  Quick  Returns. 


[87] 


THE  COLLAPSE  OF  CULTURE 


THE  COLLAPSE  OF  CULTURE 

A  GENERATION  ago  the  scientists 
warred  for  recognition  as  edu- 
cators of  youth.  They  deserved  to 
win;  and  they  won.  To  know  the 
law  of  the  natural  world  is  indispens- 
able to  him  who  would  understand 
aright  the  law  of  the  social.  A  fun- 
damental and  sympathetic  acquaintance 
with  at  least  one  science,  such  as  physics 
or  chemistry,  is  as  integral  a  part  of  culture 
as  a  fundamental  and  sympathetic  ac- 
quaintance with  the  humanities.  The 
conflict  is  no  longer  between  science  and 
culture;  for  science  is  a  face  of  culture. 
The  war  now  is  between  the  ideal  of 
culture  and  the  idol  of  Quick  Returns. 
[91] 


IDOLS 

In  preparation  for  the  technical  pro- 
fessions and  for  medicine  the  culture 
of  science  is  of  course  nowadays  not 
neglected,  but  the  culture  of  the  human- 
ities too  frequently  is.  In  preparation 
for  law,  for  theology,  for  teaching,  for 
certain  branches  of  humanistic  research, 
the  culture  of  science  is  frequently 
omitted,  the  culture  of  the  classical 
humanities  slighted.  In  either  case  the 
education  which  should  precede  vocation 
is  lacking;  and  the  pursuit  of  the  vocation 
becomes  arid  and  material.  The  training 
of  imagination,  emotion,  induction,  to  be 
derived  from  a  study  of  our  historical  and 
literary  heritage,  is  especially  necessary  to 
the  professions  and  to  the  nation;  and 
especially,  to-day,  is  it  cast  to  the  winds. 
The  riches  and  uplift  of  the  humanities 
are  bartered  for  a  mess  of  pottage. 

Education  is  to  enjoy  the  best  and 
[92] 


IDOLS 

produce  the  best  as  well  as  to  know  the 
best.  How  can  one  enjoy  without  know- 
ing; how  can  one  produce  in  the  freedom 
of  self-realization,  without  enjoying? 
What  was  it  Fletcher  of  Saltoun  said  ?  — 
The  songs  of  a  nation,  the  poetry  of  a 
nation,  the  music  of  a  nation,  the  art  of 
a  nation,  the  history  of  a  nation,  the  ideals 
of  a  nation,  aye,  and  of  a  world  —  these 
are  the  joy  of  life,  these  the  impulse  to  law 
and  conduct,  and  discovery  and  creation, 
and  patriotism  and  religion.  Without  the 
humanities  what  man  can  be  educated  ? 
what  vocation  is  more  than  a  meal-check  ? 
What  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall  gain 
the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ? 
What  were  a  world  without  Romance  ? 

• 

Since  spoken  word  man's  spirit  stirred 

Beyond  his  belly-need, 
What  is  is  Thine  of  fair  design 

In  thought  and  craft  and  deed 

[93] 


IDOLS 

Each  stroke  anght  of  toil  and  fight, 

That  was  and  that  shall  be, 
And  hope  too  high,  wherefore  we  die, 

Has  birth  and  worth  in  Thee. 

Especially  downtrodden  of  men  is  our 
heritage  from  antiquity.  Man  will  al- 
ways be  the  heir  of  all  the  ages.  To  sat- 
isfy him  with  the  heritage  of  a  recent 
yesterday,  the  modern  languages  and 
literatures,  modern  history  and  poetry 
and  economics,  strive  in  vain.  He 
remains  the  child  of  the  ages,  but  a 
child  deprived  of  his  full  heritage  — 
deprived,  by  a  constructive  inhibition 
in  our  schools,  of  the  imaginative,  moral, 
and  historical  training  of  the  Bible,  and 
of  the  inestimable  riches  of  its  literature, 
-deprived  by  delusions  of  Quick 
Returns  and  blind  Caprice  of  ancient 
history,  poetry,  philosophy,  the  back- 
ground of  all  that  is  new  —  deprived 
[94] 


IDOLS 

of  the  classics.  Upon  a  first  hand 
acquaintance  with  Greek  and  Latin  clas- 
sics, the  appreciation  of  English  and  of 
all  modern  literature  depends.  The 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  institutions 
and  of  art  depends  upon  a  knowledge 
of  the  classics.  The  knowledge  of  phil- 
osophy depends  upon  a  knowledge  of 
the  classics.  Equipment  for  liberal 
scholarship  of  any  kind  depends  upon 
a  knowledge  of  the  classics.  No  better 
training  in  logical  processes  was  ever 
devised  than  the  philological  discipline 
of  the  classics.  No  discipline  more 
thoroughly  systematized,  more  uniform, 
more  definite,  more  rigorous.  No  better 
training  in  the  use  of  one's  own  language 
than  translation  from  the  classics.  No 
better  school  of  poetry  or  of  oratory  than 
the  classics.  No  better  gallery  of  lives  - 
which  to  contemplate  is  to  know  that 
[95] 


IDOLS 

virtue  is  its  own  reward  and  vice  its 
own  penalty. 

To  the  abandonment  of  the  classics 
with  their  sweet  simplicity  and  their 
majesty,  their  orderly  restraint  and  their 
severe  regard,  I  attribute  in  no  small 
degree  the  declining  ability  to  think 
clearly,  to  speak  and  write  lucidly,  pre- 
cisely, effectively,  the  declining  love  of 
noble  letters  and  noble  art  —  the  declin- 
ing respect  for  tradition  and  authority, 
for  the  heritage  and  the  faith  —  the 
declining  splendour  of  the  ideal.  Shall 
Man,  who  is  the  heir  of  the  society  of  all 
the  ages,  experience  no  quiver  of  historic 
sense,  have  no  glimmer  of  that  liberal  art 
and  life  which  led  his  rude  forefathers 
to  the  enlightenment  of  civilization  ? 

Twenty-nine  years  ago,  the  Right 
Reverend  Samuel  Smith  Harris,  Bishop 
of  Michigan,  pleading  from  the  platform 
[96] 


IDOLS 

of  a  great  university  for  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  complete  education,  said: 
"The  allurements  of  mammon  and  world- 
liness  are  too  often  permitted  to  call  our 
ingenuous  youth  from  the  proper  business 
of  the  school  and  college.  Short  roads  and 
by-paths  are  opened  up  to  tempt  them  to 
abandon  the  proper  work  of  education 
and  to  go  prematurely  to  schools  of  pro- 
fessional and  technical  instruction.  The 
consequence  is  the  sending  forth  of  half- 
educated  men  and  inexperienced  men  to 
plead  the  causes,  and  heal  the  diseases, 
and  lead  the  thinking  of  the  generation. 
Let  us  all  protest  against  this  great  evil; 
for  unless  it  is  counteracted  it  will  lead  to 
the  impoverishment  of  the  age."  It  has 
led  to  the  impoverishment  of  the  age. 

The  neglect  of  the  humanities  is  trace- 
able,  also,   to  the  pedagogical   doctrine 
[97] 


IDOLS 

of  the  equivalence  of  studies:  a  tenet 
of  Caprice.  But  there  is,  in  fact,  no 
such  thing  as  equivalence  of  studies 
in  discipline,  or  in  informational  value,  for 
life.  The  humanities  and  the  sciences 
train  faculties  the  same,  or  different,  in 
different  conjunctions  and  in  different  de- 
grees. They,  severally,  impart  information 
that  has  different  values  for  life,  or  that 
is  appropriate  to  different  callings  in  life. 
If,  in  obedience  to  the  new  psych- 
ology, we  surrender  the  theory  of  the 
superior  discipline  of  certain  studies, 
we  still  hold  to  the  superior  educational 
worth  of  certain  studies  because  of  their 
intrinsic  value  for  life.  In  other  words, 
granting  that  as  one  of  our  eminent 
new  psychologists  has  said,  "Conscien- 
tious pursuit  of  any  intellectual  occupa- 
tion results  in  rendering  the  mind  more 
efficient  in  all  other  lines  of  work," 
[98] 


IDOLS 

there  is  still  a  greater  "residual  value 
in  the  character  of  the  subject-matter" 
of  certain  studies  than  of  others. 

But  even  in  the  matter  of  discipline,  it 
is  essential  that  the  mental  machine  be 
trained  to  run  not  in  one  rut  but  in  the 
several  grooves  "of  procedure  needful 
in  the  main  divisions  of  the  world 
of  mind."  And  of  these  procedures  that 
which  demands  mental  concentration 
in  the  highest  degree  develops  best  the 
ability  to  grapple  mentally  and  morally 
with  the  manifold  problems  of  life. 
That  which  is  capable,  because  of  long 
centuries  of  educational  experience,  of 
conveying  a  discipline  most  nearly  uni- 
form is  most  to  be  desired  in  the  train- 
ing of  the  youth  of  a  democratic  republic. 
From  this  point  of  view  we  do  not  sur- 
render the  theory  of  the  superiority  of 
the  discipline  for  life  as  a  whole  afforded 
[99] 


IDOLS 

by  the  humanities.  The  dictum  of  one 
whose  words  have  found  ready  acceptance 
these  past  thirty  years,  that  "the  object 
of  a  liberal  and  a  scientific  education  is 
fundamentally  the  same,  namely,  training 
for  power,"  is  one  of  the  most  vicious 
fallacies  that  ever  afflicted  education. 
Power  is  not  the  only  object;  nor  is 
the  power  the  same;  nor  is  the  training 
the  same;  nor  are  those  other  objects, 
knowledge  and  cultivated  judgment,  the 
same. 

One  does  not,  of  course,  base  an  advo- 
cacy of  the  compulsory  study  of  the 
humanities  on  the  sole  ground  of  formal 
discipline,  or  of  their  initial  distaste- 
fulness  to  many  —  though  to  persevere 
and  to  conquer  are  essential  factors  in 
education;  but  one  does  most  emphat- 
ically decline  to  eliminate  from  the 
curriculum  the  comprehensive  knowl- 
[100] 


IDOLS 

edge  and  power  for  life  which  the 
humanities,  properly  taught,  convey,  in 
favour  of  vocational  preparation,  which 
is  a  kind  of  child-labour  in  disguise,  or 
of  education  by  capricious  choice.  All 
that  has  been  said  of  the  compulsory 
study  of  the  humanities  applies  mutatis 
mutandis  to  the  compulsory  study  of 
science.  To  culture  both  are  essential. 


[101] 


SOME  WAGES  OF  PEDANTRY 


SOME  WAGES  OF  PEDANTRY 

IN  NO  slight  measure  the  worship 
of  Caprice  and  Quick  Returns  and 
Inevitable  Grace  owes  its  supremacy  to 
the  irrationality  of  the  despotism  of  the 
idol,  once  supreme,  Pedantry.  For  the 
reaction  against  the  classics  some  of 
our  classicists  are  most  to  blame;  more 
broadly,  for  the  reaction  against  humani- 
ties, some  of  our,  so-called,  humanists. 
In  a  time  when  the  scientific  and  the 
practical  clamoured  for  their  rights  the 
humanists  babbled  of  the  ideal,  mean- 
ing the  unpractical.  In  a  time  when 
the  ideal,  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  might  have  saved  the  humanities, 
the  teachers  of  the  humanities  were 
[105] 


IDOLS 

busy  repelling  worshippers  from  the 
shrine  with  a  mystic  mumble  of  glosses, 
textual  variants,  codices,  collations,  with 
a  processional  methodology  and  grave- 
clothes  in  monstrance  of  crumbled  com- 
mentators, with  grammatic  genuflections, 
and  a  horrific  jargon  of  umlauts,  and 
all  that  windpipe  and  gullet  liturgy 
of  anatomical  phonetics.  Forgetting 
the  spirit  of  the  poetry  and  history 
that  they  professed,  they  were  insisting 
that  even  the  child  should  imbibe 
devices  esoterically  scientific,  utterly 
uncultural.  So  Pedantry  stirred  a  revo- 
lution against  its  own  despotism,  and 
the  humanities,  having  joined  themselves 
to  Pedantry,  fell.  And  in  the  read- 
justment there  arose  the  trinity  of  idols 
which  presides  over  this  paragraph. 
Also  there  arose  that  anarchy  of  aca- 
demic life,  that  riot  of  non-studious 
[106] 


IDOLS 

activities  whose  deity  is  the  idol  of 
Incidental  Issues.  He  may  be  called 
afso  False  Culture;  and  his  high  priests 
are  the  Hero  of  the  Campus  and  the 
Bandar-log.  For,  teachers  of  the 
humanities  having  deserted  culture  and 
taken  to  stopping  the  mouth  of  the 
hungry  with  a  stone,  the  hungry  repu- 
diated the  stone  and  imagined  for  them- 
selves a  false  culture  —  of  the  circus, 
stadium  and  coliseum,  of  the  stage  and 
music-hall  and  toy-Tammany,  such  as 
they  might  be  expected  to  devise.  But 
since  youth  must  have  ideals  they  draw 
over  their  idol  the  cloak  of  loyalty  to  the 
university. 

Such  evils  has  the  reaction  against 
Pedantry  produced.  But  Pedantry 
still  counts  his  idolaters.  We,  of  the 
faculties,  continue  to  invent  enormities. 
We  are  justly  proud  of  our  schools  of 
[107] 


IDOLS 

graduate  research.  They  have  pro- 
duced much  in  the  service  of  true  schol- 
arship, which  is  life.  But,  too  often, 
we  have  divorced  scholarship  from  life: 
indeed,  life  were  inept  not  to  file  the 
petition  himself.  We  have,  too  often, 
done  all  we  could  to  make  scholarship 
stupid;  if  not  stupid,  unintelligible. 
Too  often  we  have  reduced  literature 
to  a  card  catalogue,  and  history  to  tis- 
sues and  bones.  We  have  reasserted 
the  creed  that  learning  to  be  real  must 
be  dark,  to  be  deep  must  be  narrow. 
We  have  multiplied  levels  and  stopes 
with  never  a  vein  in  sight.  We  have 
invented  the  thesis.  We  have  invented 
the  thesis  that  cannot  survive  unless  it 
is  buried  in  footnotes.  Studying  muni- 
cipal law  we  have  invented  the  thesis 
on  the  Town  Pump.  Revelling  in  the 
High  History  of  the  Holy  Grail  we  have 
[108] 


IDOLS 

written  reams,  to  evoke  a  yawn.  As 
fearing  lest  the  fountain  of  the  classics 
might  be  exhausted,  we  have  taught 
them  in  thimblefuls,  dosing  them  out. 
As  fearing  lest  the  epic  survey  of  history 
may  be  fiction,  and  desiring  to  make 
historians  of  all  freshmen,  we  have 
taught  them  documentary  research,  which 
is  for  freshmen  foolishness. 

We  revert  as  fast  as  we  can  to  the  evils 
of  ignorance  and  pedantry,  by  entrust- 
ing our  younger  students  to  green  spe- 
cialists, who  astonish  and  dismay  with 
the  disjectis  membris  indigestaque 
mole  of  their  investigations.  Any 
specialist  would  be  bad  enough;  but 
a  green  specialist,  that  is  iniquity. 

The  green  specialist  is  not  foisted  upon 

the  freshman  by   the   cult   of   Pedantry 

alone;     but    by   stringency   of   poverty. 

Only  too  many  of  our  young  instructors 

[109] 


IDOLS 

are  narrow  and  technical,  as  compared 
with  those  of  the  previous  generation 
when  liberally  educated  men  could 
afford  to  teach;  when  living  was  cheap, 
and  the  standard  of  living,  modest. 
But  that  is  another  story.  Only  too 
often  our  brightest  graduates  don't  teach; 
they  seek  more  lucrative  professions. 
The  Carnegie  Foundation  is,  we  hope, 
contributing  to  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem. Though  a  professor  may  live  poor 
all  his  life,  he  need  no  longer  anticipate 
the  poor-house  for  his  family. 


[110] 


SOME  WAGES  OF  PLAY 


SOME  WAGES  OF  PLAY 

PLAY  is  essential  to  healthy  develop- 
ment. And  the  capabilities  of  the 
individual  should  be  considered  hi  the 
scheme  of  education.  But  play  is  not 
a  factor  in  education.  To  the  wor- 
ship of  the  idol  of  Play,  set  up  in  the 
academic  market-place,  we  especially 
attribute  the  lapses  of  mental  and  moral 
discipline,  unfortunately  common  among 
our  young  people  of  to-day. 

"Follow  nature,"  said  Erasmus,  revolt- 
ing  against  the  unnatural  compulsion 
and  technicality  of  monkish  education. 
"Don't  shut  boys  and  girls  in  cloisters 
against  their  will!  Don't  roar  at  them 
and  beat  them!  Don't  overwork  the 
[113] 


IDOLS 

memory!  Make  studies  interesting! 
You  can  teach  letters  as  if  in  play." 
And  pedagogical  extremists,  rejecting 
the  birch,  have  overdone  the  balm. 
Montaigne  overdid  it.  Locke  overdid 
it.  Rousseau  and  the  philanthropists 
overdid  it.  Finally  appeared  Froebel, 
and  his  kindergarten  overdid  it,  to  death. 
Since  Froebel  began  to  have  statues  in 
our  cities,  discipline  has  disappeared 
out  of  our  schools;  the  memory,  for  lack 
of  exercise,  is  atrophied  —  it  is  a  breeder 
of  disease,  a  tonsil,  a  vermiform  appen- 
dix —  remains  but  to  cut  it  out ;  the 
child  is  no  longer  "born  for  the  uni- 
verse," but  for  himself;  not  subject  to  the 
common  training  of  his  kind,  but  to  his 
own  sweet  will.  In  the  kindergarten 
he  learns  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
application,  no  such  word  as  "must." 
So  with  coddling  and  dawdling  and 
[114] 


IDOLS 

marking  time,  and  playing  at  work  and 
"working"  the  "dear  teacher,"  he 
emerges,  not  merely  inert  of  mind  and 
morals,  but  pervert. 

May  one  suggest  that  bodily  exercise, 
ventilation,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness can  be  secured  without  turning 
education  into  "ring-around-a-rosey"  ? 
The  justification  of  the  kindergarten, 
where  children  play  at  bees  and  birds 
and  butterflies,  is  as  a  day  nursery. 
The  public  day  nursery  is  a  blessing  to 
those  whose  pre-scholastic  childhood 
would  otherwise  be  lived  in  tenements 
and  slums;  but  the  blessing  should 
not  be  availed  of  by  parents  who  can 
amuse  their  offspring  out  of  the  private 
purse  until  such  time  as  they  are  put 
to  school  in  earnest.  To  indulge  day 
nurseries  in  our  public  schools  is  to 
indulge  in  misdirected  effort  and  expense. 
[115] 


IDOLS 

It  is  to  indulge  both  parents  and  chil- 
dren in  a  misconception  of  the  nature 
of  education  —  a  misconception  based 
upon  a  criminal  fallacy  and  fraught  with 
criminal  results. 

The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them; 
The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones. 

The  first  line  Shakespeare  wrote  for 
Rousseau,  the  second  for  Froebel. 
Rousseau  and  Froebel  are  the  high 
priests  of  the  idol  of  Play. 

From  the  idea  that  education  is  a 
playful  and  cosseting  operation  proceeds 
to  some  extent  the  commitment  of  gram- 
mar schools  and  high  schools  to  the 
tender  sex.  For  the  noble  women  in 
our  schools,  serving  according  to  their 
lights  and  capabilities,  I  have  the  sin- 
cerest  admiration.  They  are  the  natu- 
ral protectors  and  instructors  of  the 
[116] 


IDOLS 

early  childhood  of  both  sexes.  But  con- 
cerning the  system  which  commits 
almost  exclusively  to  women  the  disci- 
pline of  maturing  boys,  I  entertain  mis- 
givings, mitigated  only  by  the  pathos  of 
the  conditions  that  seem  to  have  rendered 
the  system  necessary.  From  the  com- 
bination of  Froebelism  and  Feminization, 
of  education  by  amusement  and  educa- 
tion by  women,  much  of  our  lack  of 
discipline  proceeds. 

Boys  of  twelve  and  coming  men  of 
sixteen  cannot  be  shaped  by  play.  They 
cannot  be  shaped  for  the  awful  choice 
of  good  and  evil  by  cosseting.  Honour 
and  obedience  are  not  a  matter  of 
amusement  or  of  eye-service.  Only 
men  know  the  temptations  of  young 
manhood  and  only  to  men  will  young 
manhood  confide  its  needs.  Only  by 
men  can  young  men  be  disciplined  to 
[117] 


IDOLS 

do  what  they  must.  And  only  so 
does  bitter  duty  become  superlatively 
sweet.  By  active  participation  or  by 
example  the  undisciplined  product  of 
our  undisciplinary  education  swells  the 
mob.  The  effect  is  evident  in  the  lack 
of  reverence  for  tradition,  for  authority, 
for  order,  for  righteousness.  In  the 
lack  of  patriotism  —  the  highest  civic 
ideal. 


[118] 


THE  COLLAPSE  OF  DISCIPLINE 


THE  COLLAPSE  OF  DISCIPLINE 

SAID  an  officer  of  the  army  to  me,  the 
other  day,  an  officer  of  high  rank 
and  long  experience  —  and  he  expressly 
permits  me  to  repeat  his  words:  "The 
fatal  defect  in  the  efficiency  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  Army  is  the  lack  of  training 
inherent  in  the  course  of  education 
through  which  the  youth  of  the  country 
have  passed.  Intelligent  military  dis- 
cipline depends  upon  true  patriotism, 
patriotism  in  turn  upon  early  discipline. 
Patriotism  is  almost  a  negligible  quantity 
in  the  United  States  Army.  There 
is  not  an  officer  of  experience  in  our 
army  who,  deep  down  in  his  heart, 
is  not  convinced  that  for  these  reasons, 
[121] 


IDOLS 

in  the  initial  contact  of  our  army  with  a 
foreign  army  of  the  first  class,  we  should 
meet  with  disaster."  These  be  bitter 
words;  but  I  cite  them  for  what  they 
are  undoubtedly  worth. 

Note  that  the  speaker  is  here  referring 
not  to  the  volunteer  forces  of  the  various 
states.  Voluntary  service  implies  early 
training,  probably  in  the  home.  Of  the 
patriotism  and  adaptability  of  these  forces 
to  military  discipline  no  one  entertains  a 
doubt.  My  military  friend  refers  to  our 
standing  army.  And  though  I  have  made 
frequent  inquiry  I  have  yet  to  find  an 
officer  of  our  army  who  does  not  respect 
his  criticism.  He  refers  tc  our  standing 
army,  and  to  the  difficulty  of  maintain- 
ing not  discipline,  but  the  "intelligent 
military  discipline  that  rests  upon  patri- 
otism." Patriotism  rests  upon  a  train- 
ing in  youth  which  inculcates  obedience, 
[122] 


IDOLS 

unselfishness,  devotion  to  a  higher  self. 
The  lack  of  that  spirit  on  the  part  of 
the  un-Americanized  immigrants  who 
enter  the  army  is  intelligible. 

But  when  we  are  informed  that  recruits 
who  have  passed  through  our  lower 
schools,  cannot,  in  spite  of  the  wisdom, 
patience,  and  efficiency  of  our  American 
officers,  be  moulded  to  the  intelligent 
discipline  that  depends  upon  patriotism, 
what  apology  have  we  educators  to 
prefer?  Froebelism.  What  apology 
our  cities  and  States?  Feminization. 
With  all  their  appropriation  for  mate- 
rial comfort  in  the  schools,  for  mech- 
anism and  method  —  hydra-headed 
and  microcephalous  —  they  have  failed 
to  segregate  funds  sufficient  to  win  men 
to  the  ranks  of  education.  Some  fine 
men  there  are;  more  Miss  Nancys. 
Some  fine  women,  infinitely  superior 
[123] 


IDOLS 

to  the  Miss  Nancys ;  and  a  mob  of  mobile 
maidens  meditating  matrimony.  This 
is  not  alliteration :  it  is  fact.  The  average 
salary  in  our  public  schools  is  $330  per 
annum.  Eighty  per  cent,  of  the  teachers 
in  our  schools  are  women.  And  the 
average  professional  life  of  our  women 
teachers  is  three  years.  Are  they  starved 
into  matrimony?  or  do  they  coquet 
a  while  on  cream-puff  salaries  ?  Under 
such  conditions,  even  if  women  were 
suited  to  discipline  our  maturing  boys, 
which  they  are  not  —  what  continuity 
of  mental,  what  of  moral  discipline, 
can  we  expect  ?  If  it  be  objected  that 
the  roots  of  discipline  and  hence  of 
patriotism  are  not  in  the  school  but 
the  home,  I  reply  that  it  is  our  duty, 
as  educators,  to  discipline  parents  for 
the  home.  And  discipline  is  not  —  to 
bow  down  to  the  idol  of  Play. 
[124] 


IDOLS 

Education,  as  I  have  said,  is  the 
process  of  knowing  the  best,  enjoying 
the  best,  producing  the  best;  but  not 
in  the  realms  of  truth  and  taste  alone: 
in  the  realm  of  duty,  too.  The  goal  of 
all  study  is  service  to  humanity;  more 
directly,  service  to  the  home,  to  society, 
and  to  the  state.  That  service  can  be 
rendered  only  by  the  man  who  is  sane 
of  body  as  well  as  of  soul.  To  that 
sanity  the  essential  is  duty  performed; 
physical  duty  as  well  as  mental  and 
moral.  But  that  duty  must  be  ration- 
ally determined  and  rigidly  exacted. 

So  far  as  the  physical  welfare  of  our 
pupils  in  the  public  schools  is  concerned 
it  would  appear  that  whatever  effort  is 
exercised  is  neither  rational  nor  rigid. 
Turning  again  to  the  examination  for 
entrance  to  West  Point,  we  note  that 
of  a  grand  total  of  351  candidates, 
[125] 


IDOLS 

100  were  found  to  be  physically  defec- 
tive. "This,"  says  Colonel  Lamed, 
"is  perhaps  the  most  serious  feature 
of  the  exhibit.  .  .  .  Public  education 
surely  has  something  to  do  with  the 
physical  well-being  of  our  children;  and 
the  benefit  to  the  community  of  its  sys- 
tematic occupation  with  their  develop- 
ment and  care  in  this  regard  is  in  no 
respect  inferior  to  the  importance  of  its 
function  as  a  mind-trainer.  If  the 
standard  of  mind-development  is  that 
here  shown,  then  most  assuredly  ten 
years  of  systematic  body-training  would 
produce  a  benefit  to  the  average  child 
vastly  superior."  Those  of  us  who 
have  had  experience  with  a  system  of 
compulsory  gymnastics  and  military 
drill  in  state  universities  can  entertain 
no  doubt  of  the  tonic  effect,  moral  as 
well  as  physical.  The  system  should 
[126] 


IDOLS 

certainly    be    extended    to    our    public 
schools. 

For  a  like  reason  and  in  like  way, 
affairs  intellectual  in  our  system  of  edu- 
cation must  be  reformed.  We  not  only 
fail  of  discipline,  we  vitiate  the  possi- 
bilities of  moral  training  inherent  in 
study,  so  long  as  we  encourage  caprice 
in  the  choice  of  studies  and  trifling  in 
their  pursuit;  and,  as  the  last  Report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
informs  us,  allow  our  pupils  in  the 
public  schools  to  take  225  holidays 
in  the  year.  I  agree  with  the  officer 
whose  statistics  of  the  United  States 
Military  Academy  I  have  quoted,  that, 
"properly  adapted"  to  the  various  needs 
and  possibilities  of  citizenship,  "the 
military  training  and  system"  of  West 
Point,  with  its  prescribed  scheme  of 
studies,  its  motive  powers  of  control 
[127] 


IDOLS 

and  award  would,  if  introduced  into 
our  lower  and  collegiate  schools,  do  more 
for  the  development  of  our  youth  in 
physical  efficiency,  scholarship,  judg- 
ment, taste,  character,  in  short  in 
preparation  for  citizenship  —  than  any 
system  now  pursued.  Save  so  far  as 
a  general  choice  between  industrial  or 
academic  schooling  is  conceded,  the 
pupil  should  encounter  no  elective  sys- 
tem until  he  is  ready  to  enter  upon  the 
true  university  course  which  now  begins 
with  the  beginning  of  the  junior  year, 
and  even  then  a  system  so  rationalized 
that  the  perils  do  not  outweigh  the 
privileges. 


[128] 


IDOLS  OF  THE  ACADEMIC  CAVE 


IDOLS  OF  THE  ACADEMIC  CAVE 

THE  long  and  short  of  it  is  that 
we,  educators,  don't  educate.  We 
are  fuddled  with  educational  fads;  and 
we  fuddle  the  schools  in  turn.  From 
the  universities  the  cry  goes  up,  "How 
do  more  than  we  do?"  By  doing  fewer 
things  and  better;  by  requiring  more 
of  the  schools.  From  the  schools  the 
cry  goes  up,  "The  universities  require 
too  much  already.  How  do  more  than 
we  can?"  By  doing  fewer  things  and 
better.  The  universities  do  not  require 
too  much,  nor  so  much  as,  in  the  near 
future,  they  will  require.  The  schools 
are  trying  not  much  but  many  things. 
They  are  fuddled  with  fads  of  pedago- 
[131] 


IDOLS 

gic  ignorance  and  conceit.  They  can 
do  more  by  trying  less:  Less  number 
and  variety  of  studies,  less  dawdling 
over  them,  less  futile  and  mortal  repe- 
tition, less  subdivision  into  arbitrary 
cabins  and  compartments  and  two-inch 
treads  of  knowledge,  less  fear  of  over- 
taxing the  memory,  less  coddling  of  the 
child,  less  experimentation  with  half- 
fledged  theories  of  pedagogy,  and  with 
fads  that  are  the  source  of  laughter  to 
gods  and  men.  They  can  do  more  by 
trying  less:  Less  spelling  of  words 
without  syllables,  and  of  syllables  with- 
out letters;  less  baby  arithmetic,  and 
ten-year  old  arithmetic,  and  fifteen- 
year  old  arithmetic;  less  partial  pay- 
ments, and  discounts,  and  calculations 
on  stocks  and  bonds,  for  girls  and  those 
who  having  escaped  being  girls  may  also 
escape  Wall  Street;  less  encyclopedic 
[132] 


IDOLS 

jumble  of  geography;  less  literary  criti- 
cism and  more  grammar;  at  least  two 
or  three  less  of  the  weary  repetitions 
of  United  States  history.  Fewer  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  effort,  in  other  words  — 
and  more  intellectual  effort  in  funda- 
mentals on  the  part  of  the  child.  Some 
accuracy  in  something.  Less  experi- 
mentation with  half-fledged  theories  of 
pedagogy,  and  with  fads  that  are  the 
laughter  of  gods  and  men.  Less  worship 
of  the  idols  of  the  Cave. 

The  waste  of  time  is  appalling;  and 
it  is  ultimately  traceable  in  our  element- 
ary schools,  to  the  worship  of  idols  of 
the  Cave. 

"My  little  boy,"  writes  Peter  McArthur, 

My  little  boy  is  eight  years  old, 

He  goes  to  school  each  day; 
He  doesn't  mind  the  tasks  they  set  — 

They  seem  to  him  but  play. 
[133] 


He  heads  his  class  at  raffia  work, 

And  also  takes  the  lead 
At  making  dinky  paper  boats  — 

But  I  wish  that  he  could  read. 

They  teach  him  physiology, 

And  oh,  it  chills  our  hearts 
To  hear  our  prattling  innocent 

Mix  up  his  inward  parts. 
He  also  learns  astronomy 

And  names  the  stars  by  night; 
Of  course  he's  very  up-to-date, 

But  I  wish  that  he  could  write. 

They  teach  him  things  botanical, 

They  teach  him  how  to  draw; 
He  babbles  of  mythology 

And  gravitation's  law; 
The  discoveries  of  science 

With  him  are  quite  a  fad. 
They  tell  me  he's  a  clever  boy, 

But  I  wish  that  he  could  add. 

From  such  schools  pupils  are  sent  to  the 
high  school  deficient  not  only  in  knowl- 
[134] 


IDOLS 

edge  but  in  discipline;  and  in  these 
new  grades  further  waste  of  time  is 
consequently  inevitable.  With  proper 
teaching,  at  least  three  priceless  years 
could  be  saved  of  a  schoolboy's  life  by 
the  age  of  eighteen. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  our  most  able 
superintendents  of  schools  that  reform 
is  impossible  until  we  have  more  com- 
petent teachers.  It  is  impossible  until 
we  cease  our  fads  of  pedagogic  igno- 
rance and  conceit.  At  present  we  are 
chopping  wood  with  a  dull  axe.  But 
instead  of  grinding  the  axe  we  step 
aside  to  chew  tobacco  and  theorize. 
Teachers  when  incompetent  are  so,  prin- 
cipally, because  they  are  ignorant.  Our 
theorists  are  to  blame.  They  try  to 
dissipate  the  ignorance  of  teachers,  not 
by  teaching  them  some  one  thing  which 
they  shall  teach,  but  by  teaching  them 
[135] 


IDOLS 

how  to   teach   all   things   that   they   do 
not  know. 

I  have  the  profoundest  respect  for 
historians  and  philosophers  of  education, 
themselves  learned  men  in  special  fields, 
like  the  late  Professors  Payne  and  Hins- 
dale,  and  the  Honourable  William  T. 
Harris,  and  the  heads  of  educational 
departments  in  some  of  our  great  uni- 
versities. But  the  sciolists  who,  ignor- 
ant of  any  art  or  science,  dabble  in  all  — 
who  walk  up  and  down  in  our  schools, 
prating  of  the  science  of  education  (as 
if  there  were  yet  any  such  science), 
and  tempting  aside  the  learner  from 
learning  what  is  tried  and  fast  in  the 
subject  that  he  would  teach  (be  it  history 
or  Latin  or  English),  to  the  pursuit  of 
so-called  laws,  principles,  methods,  not 
yet  concurred  in  by  the  wise,  not  yet 
possible  to  be  derived  from  facts  not 
[136] 


IDOLS 

yet  ascertained,  still  less  observed  and 
systematized  —  such  sciolists  do  not 
command  respect.  We  have  sympathy 
for  the  undergraduate  whose  instructor 
in  pedagogy  advised  her  to  drop  Greek 
and  take  Ventilation  of  the  School- 
room. "I  came  to  college  to  get  an 
education,"  she  replied,  "not  a  teach- 
er's certificate."  In  our  graduate  cur- 
riculum there  is  a  place  for  the  history  of 
education;  and  for  practice  in  teaching — 
for  though  a  teacher,  like  a  poet,  is  born, 
not  made,  the  self-made  man  must  try 
himself  on  a  few  times  before  he  is  fin- 
ished. But  the  place  is  not  in  the  under- 
graduate, still  less  in  the  usual  so-called 
"Normal"  School  course.  Most  of  the 
methods  and  theories  of  the  sciolists  are 
fallacies  of  ignorance  and  personal  con- 
ceit —  what  Bacon  calls  idols  of  the 
Cave.  They  waste  the  time  of  the  earn- 
[137] 


IDOLS 

est  student;  they  delude  the  incompetent 
into  a  profession  that  demands  not  so 
much  method  as  scholarship  and  innate 
aptitude;  and  they  bewilder  the  schools. 

These,  then,  are  some  of  the  idols,  to 
which  American  education  has  done 
homage :  idols  of  the  Tribe  —  the  Popu- 
lar Voice,  Inevitable  Grace,  Numbers, 
Quick  Returns,  Parade,  and  False 
Culture;  idols  of  the  Market-place 
and  Theatre  —  Caprice  and  Pedantry 
and  Play;  and  the  idols  of  the  Cave. 
But  the  homage  is  the  error  of  a  troubled 
dream,  whose  image,  when  we  awake, 
we  shall  despise.  Some  of  the  remedies 
have  already  been  implied.  Others, 
knowing  that  it  is  not  the  better  part  of 
valour,  I  shall  venture  to  suggest.  Hav- 
ing heard  that  Ephraim  was  joined  to 
his  idols,  I  have  not  let  him  alone.  I 
[138] 


IDOLS 

have  committed  the  indiscretion  of  writ- 
ing a  book  about  him  —  a  Zoar  of  a 
book,  to  be  sure;  but  then,  I  have  laid 
myself  open.  If  now,  in  addition,  I 
write  of  ideals,  what  will  Ephraim  call 
them? 


[139] 


SOME  "IDOLS"  OF  MY  OWN 


SOME  "IDOLS"  OF  MY  OWN 

MR.  HOMER  EDMISTON,  in  an 
article  on  Classical  Education  in 
America,  has  recently  maintained  that 
the  essential  excuse  for  learning  "  is  the 
mastery  and  possession,  complete  and 
permanent,  of  knowledge  and  forms  of 
skill  that  prepare  for  the  business  of 
life."  And,  with  such  learning  in  mind, 
he  extols  the  method  of  apprentice- 
ship --  "a  few  pupils  with  a  similar  bent 
and  promise  under  a  master  who  works" 
-  the  method  that,  during  the  Middle 
Ages  and  the  Renaissance,  produced  in 
art  and  the  handicrafts  generations  of 
disciples,  many  of  them  more  excellent 
than  their  masters. 

[143] 


IDOLS 

Now,  so  far  as  the  learning  of  an  art 
or  handicraft  goes,  there  is  some  truth  in 
this  contention.  But  mere  learning  is 
not  education.  And  if  it  were,  the  ques- 
tion would  still  remain  how  to  impart  it 
in  such  caravanseries  as  now  pose  for 
universities  and  public  schools?  To 
provide  on  the  one  hand  for  that 
mastery  of  special  knowledge,  and  of 
special  forms  of  skill,  which  prepares 
for  a  special  business  in  life;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  provide  for  that 
broader  discipline  which  prepares  for 
the  general  business  of  life;  and  so  to 
arrive  at  true  education  —  that  is  the 
problem. 

To  begin  with,  our  preparatory  schools, 
from  lowest  to  highest,  must  be  tho- 
roughly differentiated  as  industrial  and 
academic.  And  these  being  the  main 
educational  courses  in  our  schools,  bridges 
[144] 


IDOLS 

must  be  provided  from  one  to  the  other, 
at  appropriate  intervals :  at  ten  and  four- 
teen years  of  age;  or,  perhaps  better  still, 
at  twelve  and  fifteen — the  lines  of  division 
marking  the  introductory,  and  the  ad- 
vanced, high  school.  By  such  bridges  the 
lad  who,  beginning  with  the  industrial  and 
commercial,  develops  an  adaptability  to 
the  academic,  may  pass  over  to  it;  or 
the  lad,  who,  beginning  with  the  aca- 
demic, betrays  aptitude  for  the  industrial, 
or  is  compelled  thereto,  may  prepare 
himself  for  a  career  none  the  less 
useful  that  it  is  not  ordinarily  called 
professional. 

It  must  no  longer  be  possible  to  say 
that  we  are  "  far  behind  European  coun- 
tries in  the  matter  of  fitting  girls  and  boys 
for  a  trade";  that  the  American  school- 
boy too  often  "  does  not  know  what  to  do 
when  turned  away  from  school" ;  or  that, 
[145] 


IDOLS 

as  in  New  York,  "one-fourth  of  the  boys 
leave  the  public  school  before  graduation, 
because  they  are  *  sick  of  it."  They  are 
sick  of  it,  because  not  enough  of  them 
have  gone  straight  to  the  industrial  school ; 
and  because  the  industrial  school  itself  is 
neither  sufficiently  practical  nor  suffic- 
iently ideal.  In  the  industrial  schools  of 
the  future  manual  and  commercial  train- 
ing must  of  course  predominate,  but  not,  as 
now,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  essentials  and 
ideals  of  literature,  history  and  pure  sci- 
ence. There  must  be  training  of  imagi- 
nation, sensibility,  civic  interest:  these 
things  are  poetry  of  nature  and  humanity 
alike.  And  the  industrial  discipline 
itself  must  be  practical  and  purpose- 
ful. It  must  not  be,  as  too  frequently 
now,  arid  and  meaningless  because  ex- 
perimental; nor  on  account  of  unwieldy 
classes,  as  now,  must  it  be  superficial.  I 
[146] 


IDOLS 

would  propose  that  such  schools  avail 
themselves  of  the  cooperation  of  trades- 
unions.  In  this  way,  alone,  will  the  prac- 
tice that  makes  practical,  as  well  as  pur- 
poseful, be  assured.  Pupils  should  be 
apprenticed  by  twos  and  threes,  or  in 
somewhat  larger  squads,  to  the  masters 
of  actual  industry — even  during  the  years 
of  the  school  course.  And  the  months, 
or  weeks,  or  hours,  of  such  apprenticeship, 
genuine  in  quality  but  not  excessive  in 
amount,  should  reasonably  contribute  to- 
ward the  completion  of  the  requirements 
of  the  industrial  curriculum.  In  such 
manner,  I  believe  that  the  best  feature  of 
mediaeval  training  can  be  revived,  and 
at  the  same  tune  adapted  to  the  broader 
needs  and  opportunities  of  the  modern. 

In  the  academic  schools  the  prelimi- 
nary   to   reform    is    the    elimination    of 
[147] 


IDOLS 

incompetency  and  irrelevancy.  The  ex- 
ample of  Germany,  France  and  England, 
shows  that  years  may  be  saved.  To  ob- 
ject that  American  conditions  are  different 
from  European  is  to  beg  the  question. 
They  are  different  —  economic,  social, 
civil,  intellectual;  but  the  difference  is 
in  our  favour.  To  urge  that  the  Ameri- 
can purpose  is  different  is  disingenuous. 
The  purpose  is  everywhere  the  same  — 
to  get  ready  for  life:  the  business  of  it,  a 
business  in  it.  We  do  not  get  ready  for 
life  by  an  ignorant  loitering.  Let  us  eli- 
minate incompetency  and  irrelevancy  from 
our  common  schools;  and  encourage  our 
best  high  schools  to  take  over  the  first  two 
years  of  work  now  covered  by  our  colleges. 
So  doing,  we  shall  not  only  multiply  cen- 
tres of  academic  learning  that  prepare  for 
life  in  their  several  communities  and  that 
uplift  those  communities,  we  shall  hasten 
[148] 


IDOLS 

the  advent  of  the  true  university  that 
prepares  for  the  higher  walks  of  life  and 
uplifts  the  nation. 

I  am  not  advocating  the  addition  of 
years  in  time  to  the  high  school  course,  but 
of  years  in  achievement.  I  am  advocat- 
ing, if  you  will,  a  twelve-year  common 
school  in  which,  by  the  time  the  boy  is 
ready  to  enter  college,  two  years  have 
been  saved:  saved  from  waste  and  added 
to  wisdom.  Our  best  school-masters  tell 
us  that  even  three  years  might  be  saved. 
Our  best  schools  save  one  or  two  already. 
Our  schoolboy  of  sixteen  should  do  the 
work  he  is  now  beginning  in  college  at 
eighteen.  It  is  a  question  not  of  longer 
schooling  but  of  better;  and  the  response 
must  come  from  the  teacher.  What  we 
need  is  an  educative  system  and  teachers 
who  are  educated.  Some  one  adds 
"and  homes  that  educate."  Yes:  but 
[149] 


IDOLS 

schools  to  educate  the  homes.  To  defer 
reform  in  the  schools  till  the  homes 
are  reformed  is  to  defer  education  till 
nobody  needs  it. 

What  we  need  is  an  educative  system 
and  teachers  who  are  educated.  If  the 
university  should  require  that,  within  the 
next  six  years,  the  high  school  shall  accom- 
plish one  year  of  work  more  than  at  pres- 
sent,  the  high  school  will  require  that, 
within  the  next  three  years,  the  eight 
grades  below  it  shall  have  accomplished 
one  year  more  of  work  than  at  present. 
Within  twelve  years  our  best  universities 
will  have  relegated  the  courses  of  the 
Lower  Division,  that  is  to  say,  of  their 
present  freshman  and  sophomore  years, 
to  the  high  school.  By  the  elimination 
of  fads,  frivolity  and  ignorance  from  the 
educational  system  of  our  preparatory 
schools,  and  the  substitution  of  systema- 
[150] 


IDOLS 

tized  instruction  in  fundamentals,  the 
pupil  will  be  enabled  to  enter  the  uni- 
versity at  eighteen,  prepared  to  do  the 
work  with  which  the  university  should 
begin,  that  is,  the  work  of  our  present 
third,  or  junior  year. 

Our  academic  high  school  will  devote 
itself  to  one  common  drill  for  all,  a  drill 
prescribed  and  thorough  in  the  humani- 
ties prerequisite  to  the  liberal  study  of  any 
higher  profession.  If  the  high  school 
be  of  six  years,  it  may  profitably  fall  into 
two  divisions:  the  introductory,  taking 
pupils  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth 
year;  and  the  advanced.  The  former 
will  fit  the  pupil  who  ceases  his  schooling 
at  fifteen  for  apprenticeship  in  a  business 
or  professional  occupation.  Having  be- 
gun his  study  of  foreign  languages  in  the 
elementary  school  at  ten,  as  he  should, 
he  will  at  fifteen  have  acquired  the  fund- 
[151] 


IDOLS 

amentals  of  two,  and  the  elements  of  a 
science,  of  mathematics,  English,  history, 
geography  and  civil  government,  suffi- 
cient for  an  introduction  to  independent 
culture  and  the  conduct  of  life.  He  will 
be  where  the  pupil  of  seventeen  now  is. 
The  advanced  high  school  will  fit  pupils 
for  college.  Its  graduate  of  eighteen  will 
be  where  the  pupil  of  twenty  now  is,  or 
should  be.  He  will  enter  the  university, 
not  only  equipped  with  three  foreign 
languages  —  one  ancient  and  two  mod- 
ern, or  two  ancient  and  one  modern  — 
but  with  a  significant  knowledge  of 
English,  history,  mathematics,  and  sci- 
ence —  which  is  a  humanity  —  to  his 
credit,  besides. 

There    will    naturally   be   those   who, 

having   completed   the   reformed   school 

curriculum,  will  desire,  because  of  limited 

means,  to  proceed  immediately  to  the  pro- 

[152] 


IDOLS 

fessional  schools.  And  for  some  time  to 
come,  I  imagine  that  such  proceeding 
will  be  permitted.  They  will  unfortu- 
nately forfeit  the  more  liberal  training  of 
the  collegiate  course;  but,  more  tho- 
roughly and  broadly  prepared  than  now 
for  the  professional  course,  they  will 
enter  upon  the  career  of  life  not  only 
at  an  earlier  age  but  with  greater  prom- 
ise of  success  than  at  present  would 
be  possible. 


[153] 


SOME  MORE  "IDOLS"  OF  MY  OWN 


fTlHE  student  entering  the  collegiate 
•1  department  of  the  university  will 
choose  between  systems  of  study  different 
from  those  now  offered  —  systems  organ- 
ized and  rationalized ;  one  as  a  liberal  intro- 
duction to  vocational  studies ;  the  other  as 
a  vocational  discipline  in  liberal  studies. 
He  will  take  his  B.  A.  or  his  B.  S.  in  a 
rational  course  of  academic  studies  —  at 
twenty-one;  and  his  Ph.D.,  or  his  pro- 
fessional or  technical,  advanced  degree  at 
twenty-three  or  twenty-four,  with  a  liberal 
education  as  the  basis  of  all. 

He  has  been  grounded  in  the  funda- 
mentals of  education.     If  he  has  already 
resolved  upon  a  career  in  law,  or  medi- 
[157] 


IDOLS 

cine,  or  theology,  in  engineering  or  any 
other  of  the  professions  of  applied  science, 
he  will  enter  upon  a  system  that  may 
be  called  liberal-vocational:  vocational 
in  outlook  and  aim,  but  liberal  in  breadth 
and  method.  His  election  of  a  curric- 
ulum or  "school"  will  be  free  within  the 
limits  which  he  has  set  for  himself;  but  his 
selection  of  studies  within  that  school  will 
be  confined  to  the  groups  of  cognate  dis- 
ciplines prescribed  for  its  proper  function. 
His  attitude  toward  education  will  be 
altogether  other  than  that  which  now  too 
frequently  obtains.  He  has  but  three 
years  for  the  normal  completion  of  his 
curriculum;  and  of  that  curriculum  the 
requirements  will  not,  as  now,  be  satisfied 
by  the  mere  heaping  up  of  "  credits  "  on  dis- 
continuous "courses,"  but  by  the  ability  to 
pass  examinations  upon  divisions  of  study 
more  comprehensive  than  any  subsidiary 
[158] 


IDOLS 

"course"  or  "courses"  conducted  in  class. 
These  general  examinations  will,  more- 
over, be  entrusted  not  to  the  lecturer  or 
tutor  who  has  in  part  covered  the  sub- 
jects in  course,  but  to  independent  com- 
missions of  specialists.  The  "snap"  and 
"snap  professor"  will  lapse  into  desuetude. 
The  student  will  rest  upon  his  own  respon- 
sibility. He  will  have  little  leisure  for 
nonsense,  or  temptation  toward  the  sham 
culture  and  strenuous  parade  of  "student 
activities."  No  discipline  that  is  set  be- 
fore him  can  appear  meaningless  if  it 
form  a  practical  and  integral  part  of  the 
training  which  he  himself  has  elected  to 
pursue.  Nor  will  the  Latin  or  Greek, 
the  history  or  science,  the  modern  lan- 
guages or  the  political  and  economic  theory 
prescribed  by  the  system  which  he  has 
elected  be  any  the  less  liberal  in  educa- 
tional effect  for  the  conduct  of  life, 
[159] 


IDOLS 

because  it  happens  to  be  pursued  in  the 
rational  attempt  to  fit  oneself  for  an 
occupation  in  life. 

Such  a  student  if  he  look  toward  law 
as  his  chosen  career,  will  proceed  in  his 
academic  course  at  once  to  liberal  studies 
in  jurisprudence.  The  liberal  vocational 
system,  upon  which  he  enters,  premises 
the  fundamental  disciplines.  It  does  not, 
on  that  account,  duplicate  the  purely 
professional  course  of  the  Law  School. 
The  technical  training  of  that  course  lies 
beyond.  The  curriculum  which  he  now 
undertakes  provides  for  ultimate  higher 
vocational  ends  by  an  immediate  train- 
ing in  liberal  methods  and  materials. 
He  will  not  be  plunged  into  the  codes  and 
statutes  of  a  particular  state.  He  will 
pursue  studies  general  and  comparative. 
He  will  be  drilled,  and  he  will  drill  him- 
self, in  history,  constitutional  and  polit- 
[160] 


IDOLS 

ical,  American  and  European ;  in  political 
theory  and  economy;  in  formal  logic  and 
practical  argumentation;  in  master- 
pieces of  prose,  Latin  and  English;  in 
the  Institutes  of  Gaius  and  Justinian,  at 
first  hand;  in  Plato's  Republic  and  Aris- 
totle's Politics,  at  first  hand  if  he  can; 
in  Gneist,  Savigny  and  De  Tocqueville  at 
first  hand,  because  he  can;  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  jurisprudence  and  the  history  of 
legal  institutions;  and  in  international 
law.  He  will  pursue  a  course  none  the 
less  liberal  in  its  culture  because  voca- 
tional in  its  interest;  none  the  less  vo- 
cational in  intent  because,  in  method 
and  scope,  liberal.  His  course  is  rational 
because  wisely  prescribed ;  but  with  some 
margin  of  choice  for  the  tasting  of  sciences 
or  arts  not  prescribed.  The  liberal- 
vocational  student  is  not  grabbing  for 
quick  returns.  He  takes  his  bachelor's 
[161] 


IDOLS 

degree  in  three  years  thus  spent;  and  in 
two  more,  strictly  professional,  his  higher 
degree,  and  begins  the  practice  of  law. 
In  theology  a  similar  system  of  rational 
study  for  the  bachelor's  degree  will  be 
provided:  liberal  in  linguistic,  historical, 
philosophical,  scientific  scope;  and  on 
that  account  all  the  more  practical  in  the 
long  run.  In  medicine,  too,  a  system 
of  training  in  one  division,  which,  strictly 
prescribed,  shall  include  a  discipline  in 
correlated  disciplines  of  science  and  art. 
And  in  commerce,  and  in  engineering  and 
the  other  branches  of  applied  science.  But 
in  every  case  the  liberal  shall  precede  or 
accompany;  and  in  every  case  there  shall 
be  reserved  to  the  student  a  reasonable 
possibility  of  tasting  unrelated  disciplines. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  our   freshman 
of   the   new    dispensation    enter    college 
[162] 


IDOLS 

not  yet  fixed  in  his  choice  of  a  career  — 
if  he  desire  yet  a  season  to  fit  himself  for 
the  general  business  of  life,  he  will  find 
prepared  for  his  emergency,  too,  a  rational 
system  of  study.  The  material  and  end 
shall,  as  he  desires,  be  liberal;  but  the 
method  will  be  none  the  less  severe, 
purposeful,  vocational.  He  enters  upon 
a  vocational  discipline  in  liberal  studies. 
As  things  now  are  in  most  of  our  uni- 
versities, such  a  student  choosing  at 
random  and  unguided,  from  his  junior 
year  on,  subjects  unrelated  in  material, 
method  and  sequence,  bladders  himself 
out  with  "ragged  notions  and  babble- 
ments." If,  perchance,  he  devote  him- 
self to  one  subject  alone,  English,  Sans- 
krit, or  entomology,  he  issues  narrow  of 
beam  and  unballasted  of  wit.  My  pro- 
posal is  that  we  do  not  ride  him  on  a 
merry-go-round,  or  clap  him  into  a 
[163] 


IDOLS 

straight-jacket:  that  we  educate  him. 
That  we  give  him,  in  the  preparatory 
school,  the  liberal  foundation  requisite 
for  the  business  of  life;  that  we  give  him 
in  college  the  vocational  method  for  a 
business  in  life,  even  though  that  business 
be  cultural  or  scientific. 

He  may  choose  the  classics,  or  the 
modern  languages,  or  English,  or  history, 
or  the  natural  sciences  as  the  core  of  his 
college  course.  But  he  will  be  placed 
in  a  school  of  disciplines  prescribed  for 
the  end  that  he  professes.  He  will  not 
be  suffered  to  pursue  his  subject  out  of 
relation  to  others  requisite  to  rounded 
culture  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  vocational 
opportunity  on  the  other.  He  will  not 
be  permitted  to  devote  two  or  three  mor- 
tal years  to  English,  for  instance,  out  of 
relation  to  other  modern  poetry,  to 
classical  as  well  as  to  Germanic  or  Ro- 
[164] 


IDOLS 

mance  philology,  out  of  relation  to  polit- 
cal  and  social  history,  and  to  philosophy. 
Nowadays  we  seem  to  think  that  when 
the  Junior  (who  is  not  quite  the  equal  of 
our  future  Freshman)  has  chosen  his 
"major"  or  special  study,  he  has  passed 
the  stage  when  guidance  of  choice  is 
necessary.  We  let  him  narrow  himself  to 
the  special  study,  or  let  him  group  about 
it  what  accessories  he  will.  He  emerges 
technically  learned,  perhaps ;  but  with  an 
immaturity  of  training  and  an  innocence 
of  correlations.  His  house  of  life  is  a  piti- 
ful attic;  and  its  underpinning  wobbles. 
For  such  a  youth,  whether  he  tend 
toward  a  career  of  teaching  or  of  learning 
for  learning's  sake,  the  curriculum  must 
be  rationalized.  His  special  subject  or 
group  must  be  studied  as  a  factor  of  a 
"school"  in  which  the  disciplines  are 
strictly  prescribed  —  liberal  in  material 
[165] 


IDOLS 

and  end,  but  of  vocational  applicability 
in  method.  Whatever  freedom  of  elec- 
tive he  may  have,  after  once  electing  his 
school,  must  be  within  the  limits  per- 
scribed  by  his  instructors.  His  stand- 
ards, too,  must  rise  above  the  levels  of 
the  daily  class  and  course.  He  must,  as 
I  have  before  insisted,  be  thrown  upon 
his  own  responsibility;  he  must  pass 
examinations  set  upon  his  own  reading, 
by  those  who  do  not  know  him.  These 
examinations  should  sift  out  the  "pass" 
men  from  the  "honour"  men;  and  the 
results  should  be  published.  We  must 
rid  ourselves  of  the  fallacy  of  Inevitable 
Grace.  Students  should  not  be  allowed 
to  think  that  no  one  cares  how  well  they 
do,  or  ill.  Students  should  not  be  allowed 
to  feed  themselves  through  college  hand- 
to-mouth  on  school-boy  quizzes  and  per- 
sonally conducted  examinations;  leaning, 
[166] 


IDOLS 

when  faint,  upon  the  instructor  like  sick 
kittens  against  a  hot  brick.  Emulation 
may  be  damnable,  but  it  is  the  spice  of 
life.  Inevitable  Grace  may  be  divine, 
but  it  never  won  a  job:  a  pulpit  or  a 
professor's  chair,  a  shoemaker's  awl  or  a 
seat  on  change,  or  a  human  soul. 

If  we  of  the  faculties  shed  some  of  our 
delusions;  if  we  simply  see  to  it  that  the 
student  sees  what  he  is  driving  at,  and  why, 
and  make  him  drive  and  drive  hard,  he  will 
no  longer  delude  himself  into  the  belief  that 
by  extra-curriculum  activities  he  best  pre- 
pares himself  for  life.  We  shall  not  only 
enhance  scholarship  but  relegate  campus 
activities  to  an  existence  which,  because 
inconspicuous,  will  offer  opportunity  for 
genuine  self-sacrifice  to  their  supporters. 

This  is  not  to  relegate  all  liberal  studies 
to  the  high  school;  it  is  not  to  turn  the 
[167] 


IDOLS 

university  into  a  congeries  of  professional 
schools;  it  is  not  to  squeeze  the  college 
out  of  existence.  It  is  to  elevate  the 
university  college  in  degree,  to  rationalize 
it  in  kind.  If  by  "college"  we  mean  a 
home  of  outworn  ideals,  or  ideals  that 
have  lost  their  wits  —  a  refuge  for  aim- 
less studies,  headless  theories,  footless 
methods,  the  sooner  we  squeeze  the 
"college"  out  the  better.  But  the  "col- 
lege" is  not  the  asylum  of  delusions.  It 
is  not  of  the  ideal  because  unpractical, 
but  of  the  practical  because  ideal. 

If  what  I  urge  is  to  vocationalize  the 
liberal  studies  so  that  they  may  prepare 
one  for  an  occupation  in  life,  it  is  also  to 
liberalize  the  vocational  that  they  may 
prepare  one  for  the  conduct  of  life  — 
the  business  inherently  undefined,  not 
within  the  forecast  of  the  individual,  the 
business  of  finding  oneself,  of  turning 
[168] 


IDOLS 

within  the  boat's  length,  of  steaming 
forward  in  unknown  seas.  The  pro- 
posal is,  in  brief,  that  the  college  abandon 
the  fallacy  of  indiscriminate  electives; 
or  of  a  self-chosen,  baseless  and  inade- 
quate group,  incapable  of  superstructure; 
or  of  a  major  —  an  isolated  study  — 
that  may  lead  to  pedantry  or  the  super- 
ficial practical,  but  never  to  the  educa- 
tion that  is  for  life.  The  proposal  is  to 
rationalize  our  systems  of  study.  There 
is  in  President  Hadley's  reiterated  epi- 
gram: "The  ideal  college  education  is 
one  where  a  student  learns  things  that 
he  is  not  going  to  use  in  after  life,  by 
methods  that  he  is  going  to  use,"  a 
Chestertonian  virtue.  It  teases  truth, 
but  comforts  while  it  mocks.  The  ideal 
college  education  is  precisely  not  what 
President  Hadley  says  it  is,  but  what  you 
see  he  might  have  said:  It  is  where  a 
[169] 


IDOLS 

student  learns  things  and  methods  that 
he  is  going  to  use  in  after  life;  but  not 
the  things  and  methods  that  he  is  going 
to  use  for  one  use  only.  The  latter 
learning  is  of  the  professional  school. 

This  rationalizing  of  the  college  may 
seem  to  some  of  my  readers  new  and 
therefore  impracticable;  but  it  is  not 
new  at  all.  The  curricula  of  the  uni- 
versities of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  lead- 
ing to  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts, 
which  we  in  America  have  been  prone 
to  regard  as  purely  cultural  and  hence 
unpractical,  have  for  years  been  more 
practical  than  our  American  curricula 
now  are.  Their  Final  Honour  Schools 
in  the  Literae  Humaniores,  English, 
Modern  History  and  Oriental  Languages 
are  liberal  of  the  vocational  character- 
istics already  described.  Their  schools  of 
Jurisprudence  and  Theology  are  liberal- 
[170] 


IDOLS 

vocational.  Their  final  schools,  whether 
for  honours  or  not,  in  the  departments 
mentioned  above,  and  in  Mathematics, 
Natural  Sciences,  and  Medicine,  pre- 
suppose a  basis  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
classics,  mathematics,  history,  philosophy, 
logic  and  a  modern  foreign  language. 
Their  most  vocational  of  courses  leading 
to  the  bachelor's  degree,  the  medical, 
turns  out  men  of  culture.  Their  most 
liberal,  that  in  the  Literae  Humaniores, 
especially  despised  by  our  practical  peda- 
gogues as  of  idle  culture,  monastic,  anti- 
quated, for  the  aristocratic  few,  is  in  fact 
the  most  practical  propaedeutic  to  any 
profession,  and  for  any  class  of  society, 
in  the  English-speaking  world,  to-day. 


[171] 


OBITER   DICTA 


OBITER  DICTA 

|"ET  us,  with  a  higher  grade  of  fresh- 
•*— *  men  entering  our  universities,  and 
with  systems  of  study  to  offer  them, 
insist  that  scholarship  be  supreme.  Let 
us  encourage  intellectual  emulation  by 
the  methods  that  I  have  suggested  — 
by  eliminating  the  "snap"  and  its  pro- 
fessor, by  modifying  the  merit  of  "heaped- 
up"  courses,  by  moulding  the  student 
but,  still,  throwing  him  more  upon  his 
unaided  effort,  by  emphasizing  scope,  im- 
partiality and  rigour  of  examination,  and 
by  enforcing  publicity  of  award  and  of 
awarded  responsibilities.  So  doing,  we 
shall  offset  the  culture  of  Incidental 
Issues,  Parade  and  Play.  We  shall 
[175] 


IDOLS 

explode  the  folly  of  athletics  at  long 
range;  abate  the  hysteria  of  the  ludi 
maximi.  As  to  the  extravagance  incident 
upon  gladiatorial  combats  —  let  us,  at 
once,  eliminate  all  that  savours  of  pro- 
fessionalism and  the  Flavian  Amphi- 
theatre. Let  us,  at  once,  revise  the 
rules  of  the  game  that  necessitate  pugi- 
listic proficiency,  and,  hence,  protracted 
periods  of  professional  inurement,  and, 
hence,  salaried  coaches  and  trainers  and 
such  like  lanistae,  masseurs  and  scrapers 
and  oilers,  and  training  tables  and  special 
gratuities  of  food  and  raiment,  and  hence 
colossal  expenditures,  and  colossal  risks, 
and  corvees  and  benevolences,  and 
colossal  gate-receipts.  Let  us  abolish 
the  nightmare  of  frantic  excess  and  car- 
nal hostility,  and  strife  and  blood  and 
dust.  Let  us  make  of  football  not  a 
menace  to  morals  and  manners,  life  and 
[176] 


IDOLS 

limb,  but  a  generous  rivalry,  a  pastime 
in  which  all  may  engage,  a  clean  and 
wholesome  sport.  In  brief,  let  us  culti- 
vate athletics  for  education ;  not  for  the 
"thug"  or  the  "bookie"  or  the  "bum." 
A  serious  obstacle  to  education  is  the 
ever-increasing  mass  of  the  university. 
The  more  we  subdivide  the  better.  But 
the  more  spontaneous  the  cleavage — the 
more  characteristic  the  constituent 
groups,  the  more  cohesive  each,  and  the 
more  manageable.  In  our  Greek-letter 
fraternities,  and  in  similar  house-clubs 
we  have  even  now  a  germ  of  marvellous 
academic  potentiality.  Our  fraternities 
are  American  in  origin  and  in  spirit. 
Their  process  is  of  natural  selection. 
Their  membership  includes  instructors 
as  well  as  students.  In  the  fraternity 
is  one  solution  of  the  difficulty  of  num- 
bers. Let  us  persuade  our  fraternities 
[177] 


IDOLS 

to  revise  the  policy  of  choosing  members, 
once  in  a  while,  for  promise  of  scholar- 
ship. And  let  us  found  within  our  fra- 
ternities and  house-clubs  graduate  fellow- 
ships with  residence  in  the  house.  Such 
fellowships  will  not  only  elevate  the 
standard  of  the  sodalities  themselves, 
but  constitute  the  initial  step  toward 
the  realization  of  a  system  of  colleges  of 
resident  students  and  instructors,  mu- 
tually stimulating,  within  the  university. 
Of  the  common  sense  of  our  students, 
of  their  desire  to  benefit  by  the  oppor- 
tunities offered  them,  I  have  no  doubt. 
The  essential  of  reform  is  that  we,  of 
the  faculties,  do  our  duty.  In  one  of 
Frank  Norris's  novels  there  is  a  sailing 
master  who  fears  that  his  captain  hav- 
ing failed  to  reach  the  Pole,  will  take  to 
writing  books  and  lecturing.  "I 
wouldn't  be  so  main  sorry,"  says  the 
[178] 


IDOLS 

broken-hearted  tar  to  the  heroine,  "I 
wouldn't  be  so  main  sorry  that  he  won't 
reach  the  Pole,  as  that  he  quit  trying. 
.  .  .  The  danger  don't  figure;  what 
he'd  have  to  go  through  with  don't  fig- 
ure; nothing  in  the  world  don't  figure; 
it's  his  work;  God  A'mighty  cut  him 
out  for  that,  and  he's  got  to  do  it.  Ain't 
you  got  any  influence  with  him,  Miss? 
Won't  you  talk  good  talk  to  him  ?  Don't 
let  him  chuck;  don't  let  him  get  soft. 
Make  him  be  a  Man  and  not  a  pro- 
fessor." 

Let  us  be  Men.  Let  us  keep  unde- 
sirables out  of  the  university.  Let  us 
eliminate  the  obsolete  features,  and  com- 
bine the  best,  of  the  admission  by  exam- 
ination and  the  admission  by  accredit- 
ing. Let  us  say  to  the  Bandar-log,  "  You 
may  swing  by  your  tail  if  you  will,  when 
you're  not  in  the  Palace;  but  if  you 
[179] 


IDOLS 

don't  come  down  now  and  find  out  what 
the  Palace  is  for,  and  do  it,  you  shall  go 
back  to  the  jungle  and  swing  by  your 
tail  forever."  Let  us  cultivate  closer 
personal  relations  with  our  young  men 
that  they  may  be  neither  futile  nor  utili- 
tarian, neither  Bandar-logs  nor  Men  of 
Argos  —  that  then*  youth  may  not  be 
"a  blunder,  their  manhood  a  vain  strug- 
gle, their  old  age  a  regret."  Let  us  be 
none  the  less  learned,  but,  let  us  not  be 
merely  specialists.  Let  us  be  Men.  Let 
us  pay  less  attention  to  mechanism  and 
more  to  teaching,  inspiring,  humanizing. 
Let  us  make  the  college  the  gateway, 
not  of  loafing  and  vain  delights  and  dis- 
sipated energies  and  immaterial  triumphs, 
not  of  mistaken  ideals — utilitarian  or 
professional,  profitless  learning  or  vacu- 
ous method  —  but  of  the  glorious  world 
of  conduct  and  opportunity,  of  life. 
[180] 


IDOLS 

Our  remedies  lie  in  ourselves.  And 
even  though  this  generation  of  students 
and  of  teachers  may  have  failed  of  the 
ideal,  we  shall  know  that,  for  the  next, 
some  idols  have  been  swept  away. 


THE  END 


[181] 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

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